The Honeymoon's Over
by Antithesis
Summary: Ash and Misty come back after a six month disappearance, and they've got a few surprises up their sleeves. Now they have to figure out how to live a normal life, raise five eevees, and figure out the mysteries behind their transformations. Complete.
1. Homecoming

Pokémon and all related elements are (c) and (tm) to Nintendo, Creatures, GameFreak, The Pokémon Company, 4Kids Entertainment, Viz Comics, Warner Brothers, and anyone else I may have forgotten.

This could hardly be considered an original concept. I suppose I should give some degree of credit to NeoRavenK7 for the idea of matching up Ash and Misty with their respective forms...

Hopefully this will be continued. I just wanted to upload something before I lost all my inspiration for this. You know how it goes, you get an idea and it won't leave you alone. In this case it was Ash and Misty walking into the Ketchum house after a disappearance carrying a handful of eevee kits...

And this takes place after they get married because marriage isn't an ending, it's a beginning. So basically, Ash is 18, Misty's 20, they're married, and Ash is the current Indigo league champion. Come on, you know all this stuff has to happen eventually, right?

Okay, on with the show.

* * *

Delilah Ketchum set her coffee mug on the table. "I know they're out there," she said softly. "They're not..." 

"We know" Ruth Waterflower said reassuringly. "It's just that, well..."

"People are starting to ask questions." Boaz Waterflower said. "We all know they're alive, but without proof, the state is ready to declare them deceased."

Delilah shook her head. "No, just give them time."

"I want to," Boaz said"but I need to know what to say when the state won't take 'wait' for an answer."

Delilah closed her eyes. "Ash's will is in the third cabinet from the left. It's a blue pouch with 'Kanto National Bank' on it. But he's still–"

She was interrupted by a knock on the door.

The three felt a wild hope in their hearts as they looked at the door. Slowly, Delilah got up and walked towards the door, praying that her boy was behind the door.

She opened the door to see a young man wearing a maroon t-shirt and blue jeans as well as a mop of hair that seemed to be in a perpetual state of unrest.

"Hi, mom," he said, tears in his eyes.

Ash was squeezed in a bear hug faster than anyone could blink. After overcoming the momentary shock, he returned the hug with just as much vigor. "Sorry I didn't call, but I did change my underwear," he whispered.

Ruth looked past the reunion on the doorstep and caught her breath. "Misty?"

A head of red hair, no longer confined to a ponytail, poked past Ash and his mother. "Mom?" she said tentatively, "What are you doing here?"

* * *

"So where have you been the past six months?" Boaz finally asked after everyone had settled down. 

Ash looked thoughtful for a second. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you we were still on our honeymoon, would you?"

"I'd be curious to know how much is left in your bank accounts."

Ash laughed. "Well, do you have a while? Because it's kind of a long story."

"A very long story," Misty added.

The Waterflowers and Delilah leaned closer on the sofa. "We're all ears, dear," Ruth said.

Misty and Ash looked at each other briefly. "I'll get the kids; you start," Misty whispered.

Ash nodded. "Pikachu's playing with them in the back."

As Misty left, Ash took a deep breath. But before he could start, he was interrupted by Delilah. "Kids? Ash, you've only been married six months. Did you and Misty do something we don't know about?"

"What? No!" Ash said quickly. "No, nothing like that. You–you'll understand once you see the kids. In the meantime, where should I start...

"First off, we weren't kidnapped, abducted, or any of that sort of stuff. At least not per se. It could be argued that we weren't in this of our own free will, but I couldn't care less. I'm not exactly sure how the whole thing started, meaning why it happened to us and whatnot, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with that weird guy at the wedding."

"What weird guy?" Ruth asked.

Ash frowned. "The guy that was dressed like he just walked off the set of _The Lord of the Rings_? You didn't see him?" The three listeners shook their heads.

Ash thought for a second and muttered, "Why am I not surprised." Louder, he said, "Anyway, he gave Misty and I each one of these." He reached into his shirt and showed everyone a small yellow stone mounted onto a simple necklace. "Misty's is blue, probably because it's a water stone. Mine's a thunder stone. He gave them to us that night, and he said–oh, there's Misty now."

By this point Misty had come in the back door carrying two young eevees with three more eevees and Pikachu at her feet. She managed an awkward smile and said, "Meet the grandkids. The two girls are Dewdrop and Sunrise, and the boys–" She motioned to the eevees at her feet. "–are Ember, Sparky, and Dreamer."

The grandparents weren't sure what to say. An awkward silence accented by the yipping and playing of the eevees hung in the room. Finally, Delilah ventured, "You found some abandoned eevee kits and adopted them? That's so sweet of y–"

"They're not adopted, Mom," Ash said.

"Wha... what do you mean" Ruth finally ventured to say.

"They're **ours**," Misty said firmly. "Mine and Ash's. As in I gave birth to them, we raised them... you get the picture."

Ruth slowly shook her head. "No, I don't."

"So back to the story," Ash said a little louder than normal. "The weird guy that gave us these stones said something weird when he gave them to us."

"Wonderful word choice, Shakespeare," Misty muttered.

Ash opened his mouth to retort, glanced at his mother and in-laws, and thought better of it. "As I was saying..."

* * *

"You must learn what a pokémon's life is truly like, Chosen One," the cloaked stranger said. 

Ash looked at the two pendants he had been given. "What do I do with them?"

"One is for you, the other is for your mate," he said simply. "Another chapter to your story will be written, and if you wish, you will learn from it." Before Ash could ask him what he meant, he turned and left.

Misty came up to Ash, trying not to trip in her elaborate bridal dress. "Who was that"

Ash kept staring after the stranger. "I'm not sure. I couldn't even see his face..." He noticed the pendants in his hand and handed the blue one to Misty. "He gave this to you."

Misty took it and slowly put it around her neck and inside her dress.

"It looks nice on you," Ash said with a smirk.

"Really?" Misty said, taking the bait.

"Really really," Ash whispered as they leaned in for the seventeenth kiss of the night.

* * *

"Nothing happened for a couple of days," Ash continued. Seeing a pouty face on Misty he quickly added, "At least, nothing that's terribly important to the story. I'm sure you can guess what happened," he said with a smirk. 

Delilah and Ruth giggled slightly while Boaz rolled his eyes. "Get on with it."

"Right. About two days after the wedding, things started getting a little strange. Like there would be times Misty and I would be reduced to barking in the middle of an argument and we wouldn't realize until Pikachu gave us both a nice shock and told us to watch our language. Misty was drinking a lot more water than usual, and I would constantly drag my feet across the carpet in the hotel room to build up static. But all in all, it didn't feel like anything to write home about.

Then, as you know, after five days in Cinnabar we hit the wilderness west of Pallet. That was when... well, everything happened."

* * *

Ash and Misty stepped lightly off of the ferry. They were the perfect picture of a couple on their honeymoon: holding hands, kissing every ten minutes, one constantly hanging on the other's shoulder. Hardly the picture of a couple about to head into the wilderness. 

"So have we got everything?" Misty said.

Ash rummaged through the backpack. "Blankets, towels, food, stove, medicine, potions for the pokémon, spare pokéballs–"

"You brought spare pokéballs on our honeymoon?" Misty asked with a twinge of annoyance.

"Well..." Ash blanched. "What if we run into a really really rare pokémon? I could catch it as a wedding present."

"Nice try. I doubt we'll even be seeing anything as rare as an eeveeloution."

"We might see a dratini."

"In the woods?"

Ash's face fell. "Oh, right."

Misty sighed. "Once again, I've got to do all the thinking around here. I swear, you must be the densest person this side of the planet."

Ash stood up. "No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm–Look, this isn't an argument."

Misty feigned offense. "Yes it is."

"No, an argument is a series of points leading to a general conclusion. This is just contradiction."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is."

"No, because in order to argue with you I have to take up a contrary position."

"Yes, but it's not just contradiction."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is."

An angry "PIKA!" from the ground signaled the end of the "argument."

Ash blinked, trying to remember what he was supposed to be doing. He glanced down at the backpack's contents, sorted through them one more time, and said, "Yeah, I've got everything."

"You sure?" Misty asked with genuine concern. "Once we walk in there, we're pretty much committed. You up for this?"

Ash flashed Misty his trademark grin. "Do you really need to ask me? Of course I am. I'm Ash Ketchum, Pokémon Master and Indigo League Champion! I'm ready for anything."

Misty smiled. "Except me."

Ash cast her a sidelong glance. "Is that a challenge?"

"Well, I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve."

* * *

"So we walked down the path in no particular hurry," Ash said. "Pikachu was in front, keeping his nose open for any sort of danger, and Misty and I brought up the rear. 

"We hiked for most of the day, stopping about every hour and a half to get a drink and rest. When it started to get dark, we found a small clearing a reasonable distance off the path and set up camp for the night."

"By the way, those cooking lessons you gave me really paid off, Mrs. Ketchum," Misty said with a grin. "I couldn't cook fast enough for this vacuum." Ash nodded in approval.

"You still haven't explained the eevees," Boaz said, earning him a mild glare from his wife.

"I'm setting the mood," Ash said, exasperated.

Misty hit him lightly on the shoulder and muttered, "Get on with it."

Ash rolled his eyes.

* * *

"Isn't it beautiful?" Ash whispered to Misty as they lay on their backs looking at what little of the night sky they could see through the trees. 

"Is that a full moon?" Misty asked, pointing.

"Pika," Pikachu said in affirmation.

Ash sighed contentedly. He was in the middle of the woods, no humans around for miles, with his best friend and the woman he loved. How could anything be wrong at a time like this...

Suddenly Misty gasped and clutched her pendent. Her breathing quickened, and her face contorted in pain.

"Misty?" Ash said, offering his arm for comfort. He had barely made the gesture, however, before he collapsed in the same pain. Both pendents were glowing bright by this point.

Ash was nearly delirious with pain. It felt like his entire body was being hit with pins and needles, like when his feet would fall asleep and then wake up as painfully as possible. He managed to look at his arms and saw the hair on them, before not much to speak of, slowly become more pronounced and longer, almost like a rough fur.

He was sure it was just his mind playing tricks on him, but he could have sworn the ground was getting closer. He closed his eyes in an effort to stop the feeling, but that only brought attention to his aching muscles and his throbbing headache. To top it all off, he discovered a sharp pain right above his rear end and yelped in pain.

And then, just as quickly as it started, it was over.

Pikachu looked at what was left of the two humans in shock. "Pikapi," he asked tentatively, "are you okay?"

A jolteon wiggled out of Ash's clothes. "Yeah," it said in its language, "I think I'm okay."

Pikachu lowered one ear. "You- um, you do realize what happened, don't you?"

Ash smirked. "Sure. I had a wicked headache and WHAT THE CRAP?" he yelled after finally seeing his new form.

Pikachu ran over to Misty. Sure enough, she had transformed as well, except she had been given a vaporeon as her form. It suits her, Pikachu thought.

Ash bounded over to Misty as soon as he got his bearings. "Misty, are you okay?" he asked worriedly.

Misty slowly raised her head. "Ash?" she asked softly.

Despite the transformation (or maybe because of it), Ash had to admit that Misty's beauty hadn't changed at all; it had merely been "translated" to her vaporeon form. Her slick fur did nothing to hide her figure, and her mermaid tail, in addition to being sleek and powerful, was something Ash decided not to be on the receiving end of.

Likewise, Misty noticed that Ash's fur was just as wild and unruly as his hair had been, and she could nearly pick out his "electric" birthmarks on his face.

"What happened?" Misty managed to whisper.

Ash looked at her solemnly. "I think it was those stones," he said. "Modified evolution stones most likely."

"But who would want to do something like this to us?" she said, her tail beginning to sway.

Ash flipped through the faces in his mind, and one stood out above all the others. "Team Rocket," he spat.

"I seriously doubt that," Pikachu said. "It doesn't seem like their style."

"But who else would do this?"

Pikachu sighed. "There are other forces in the pokémon world besides Team Rocket. Lugia, Ho-Oh, or any of the other legendaries could have something to do with this. Whoever gave you the stone may have been a messenger of theirs."

"What did the man say to you" Misty asked, moving next to Ash.

"He said... I had to learn what a pokémon's life was truly like, and he called me 'Chosen One.' So maybe Lugia does..." He trailed off, lost in thought.

"Well, that's not really important right now," Pikachu said authoritatively. "What's important is that we find some shelter for the two of you. If this wears off in the morning, so be it, but if you're going to be like this for a while you'll need to find a den or something."

* * *

Ash picked up Dreamer who was pawing steadily at his leg. "That's pretty much how things got started. For the first day or so Pikachu was determined not to let us do anything stupid that I probably would have done otherwise. For example, we were trying to light a fire one night, and I suggested we use Charizard. Misty was kinda on the fence about that, but Pikachu was completely against the idea." 

"Ka chu pii chu, Pikapi," Pikachu yelled from the other end of the room.

"I know," Ash yelled back. To the humans he explained, "He says he would have eaten us, and to tell you the truth, I'm inclined to believe her. Fortunately, we never really had to contend with anything as ferocious as a charizard."

"Were you in danger?" Delilah gasped.

Ash nodded as if that were obvious. "We ran into our fair share of problems. Not all of them were life-threatening, but it's not exactly a hotel out in the wilderness."

* * *

"For the last time," Ash growled, "my mate and I were released here by our trainers. We did not know about your petty dispute over territory. If you will allow us to stay here for the time being–" 

The ivysaur roared. "We will not allow you to stay," it repeated. "You are not part of our clan, therefore you must leave."

Ash opened his mouth to retort, but Pikachu silenced him. "It's not worth it, Pikapi," he yelled from a distance. Ash glared one last time at the ivysaur and walked back to Pikachu and Misty in defeat.

"I'm Ash Ketchum," he muttered. "I don't walk away from a challenge."

"Except you'd lose," Misty said. "There was no way you'd be able to take on all of those ivysaurs, and I sure as Ho-Oh couldn't help you."

"I'm just trying to find a place for you," Ash growled.

"Well you don't have to act all impressive about it," Misty retorted.

"Are you saying you don't want me to protect you?"

"You don't have to act like a freaking machamp about it."

"So what do you want then, huh?" Ash yelled. "Want me to prance around in a bed of flowers?"

"You can stop acting like I'm some sort of trophy!" Misty answered.

"CHU!" Pikachu yelled, glaring at the two eons. She took a deep breath and spoke slowly.

"Pikapi," he started, "you have to understand that although you may feel strong, you have a tendency to overestimate your abilities. I can still beat you in a fight; don't forget that. And you could start giving Pikachupi a little more credit."

Before Ash could retort, he turned to Misty. "And as for you, Pikachupi, there's a little something that happens about this time of year that clouds everyone's judgment. You and Pikapi have so many hormones in your system neither of you can think straight. Pikapi is acting like a 'freaking machamp' because he's trying to impress you."

When Misty didn't seem to understand, Pikachu groaned, threw his hands in the air, and yelled, "He's freaking attracted to you! It's freaking mating season and you're driving him crazy just by being here. Apparently his jolteon half hasn't realized that he doesn't have to impress you as much as he does. It's called freaking instinct!" He turned around and mumbled in frustration, "For all your talk, Pikachupi, you're just as thick as Pikapi sometimes."

* * *

"He said that?" Delilah said, gaping at Pikachu. 

"Pika pika," Pikachu responded firmly, stomping his hind paw on the ground for good measure.

Ash nodded. "He certainly didn't mince words with us. I think he pretty much took it upon himself to ensure that we survived this ordeal. Since he was the only one out of the three of us that had ever been in the wild like this before–not to mention he's got a temper disproportionate to his size–we went along with it."

"Pikapi," Pikachu said threateningly.

Ash just smirked. "Now, where were we?"

Misty leaned over and whispered something in Ash's ear, causing Ash to blush heavily. "I think we can leave that up to their imaginations, Misty," Ash said in a hurry before he and Misty collapsed in a fit of giggles.

"Get on with it," Boaz groaned.

Pikachu started to charge up an electrical attack, but stopped halfway through. Hopping onto the floor, he talked with one of the eevee kits and helped it up onto the couch Ash and Misty were sitting on. The eevee looked at them from one end, then charged towards them with a shrill "Vee!"

Ash stopped giggling but never lost his amused smirk. He picked up the kit (who had quickly donned the most innocent face it could muster) and whispered in its ear something that wasn't caught by the other members of the room, though it sounded suspiciously like different annotations of "jolteon."

The kit's eyes brightened. With a yelp to its brothers and sisters it charged toward Pikachu. Pikachu glared at Ash and ran out of the room towards the back yard, the five kits in fast pursuit.

Misty sighed. "You were right when you said it wasn't easy," she said. "You know–being a parent and all."

Ruth shifted slightly in her seat. "Well, dear," she said, "what you've got... well, I'm sure there are similarities and..."

Ash sensed the awkward moment and stepped in. "Now, where was I?"

"Mating season" Boaz said dryly.

"I'll skip to when we got the den" Misty said, picking up the story.

* * *

"This is perfect!" Misty squealed as she looked around the den. It was a hollow beneath a old oak tree, and as such was extremely large. Large enough for a family, as Pikachu had reminded. 

"In a few weeks there's going to be a lot less space," he pointed out.

"How many weeks?" Ash asked, inspecting a tree root hanging from the ceiling.

"How am I supposed to know?" Pikachu groaned. "Do I look like Dexter?"

"Good idea," Ash yelped and ran out of the den. He came back in a few moments later dragging a half-open backpack stuffed in no particular manner with clothes, potions, and other various items.

"I had Dexter in my back pocket, right?" Ash asked no one in particular as he began rummaging through the contents of the backpack. Finally he found his old pair of jeans and–with much difficulty–pulled the pokédex out of the pocket and aimed it at Misty.

"Vaporeon," it said in its usual voice. "The water evolution of eevee. Due to the shape of its tail, it has often been mistaken for a mermaid by coastal residents."

Ash looked at her and grinned. "Well, you're beautiful enough to fool me any day."

Misty rolled her eyes but smiled anyway. "What are you trying to find out, anyway?"

"Right. Dexter, display more info."

Dexter's light flashed red. "Voice command not recognized. Please try again."

Ash sighed. "Guess it doesn't understand Jolteon."

"Well, there's got to be a button you can press, isn't there?" Misty said.

Ash studied the panel carefully. "That one," he said. He tried to press it but stopped halfway through, noticing the size of his paw.

"Which one?" Pikachu asked. "I've got smaller paws." Ash pointed, and he pressed the button.

"Information on wild Vaporeon is unknown," Dexter continued. "In captivity, all of eevee's evolutionary forms are known to have a gestation period of five to seven weeks. Be warned that the female will be fiercely protective and prone to violent mood swings, especially when provoked."

Ash and Pikachu stared at Dexter, then slowly turned their attention to Misty, a sense of uneasiness spreading through the room.

"I'm gonna go look for food," Ash said suddenly and ran out.

Pikachu took another look at Misty and yelled, "Wait up, Pikapi," before following Ash out.

Misty sighed. "And he left his mess behind," she mumbled, walking over to the backpack. "We haven't been married for two weeks and I'm already picking up after him." Slowly she began stuffing the objects back into the pack. When she was finished, she stared at the pack for a few minutes.

She and Ash had decided to keep the backpack with them, in case they were somehow able to reverse whatever had happened to them. But as Misty looked over the only tangible reminder that she had ever been human and reminded herself of the new life inside of her, the chances of going back home began looking slim.

But where was home, anyway?

She gripped one of the backpack's straps and dragged it to the back of the den, away from the doorway and the only source of light. She could still smell it from across the den, however, the fragrant mix of her and Ash's scents. She was amazed at how she was able to recognize Ash's human clothes from his scent now, and she wondered how they smelled to other pokémon. She made a mental note to ask Pikachu later.

She curled up on the floor, burying her muzzle in her tail. Where was home, anyway? Was it back in Cerulean? No... she was married to Ash now. So was it in Pallet? No... Ash was trying to line up a small place in Viridian for them. It was wherever Ash was...

She smiled at the thought of him. How his good humor seemed to brighten any dark day, how all he had to do was look at her and she'd feel like the queen of the world, how soft his tail was when-

She checked herself. They were human, not pokémon! She and Ash... they had to remember, they couldn't forget. She couldn't come up with a good reason why, she just knew they couldn't lose their humanity.

Misty caught a new scent from the doorway. Ash was back.

Ash poked his head through the door. "Hey," he said. He walked over to her and stroked her neck with his muzzle affectionately. "Sorry I ran out on you," he whispered.

"Ash," Misty whispered, her worry creeping into her voice, "what do you remember about... before?"

Ash backed up far enough to look her in the eyes. "Before what?"

"You know," she said, looking towards the ground. "When we were human."

Ash turned around and took a few steps away. When he did speak, his voice was low, as if he didn't want to hear the words coming out of his own mouth. "Not much," he said. "I remember places, people, walking around, losing the championship to Gary, winning the championship the next year..." He looked at Misty. "Marrying you... but I don't remember what it was like. It's like my life up to this point is just one long movie, or maybe a dream..." He looked at the ceiling and continued.

"You know how when you're sick? You know, when your stomach is all unsettled and you're burning up with fever and you don't have the strength to get out of bed? You know how hard it is to remember what it's like just to not be sick, right?"

Misty nodded. "That's what it's like for me, too." So her fears were confirmed. "What if we never get back?"

Ash walked back over to her and licked her muzzle. "We will," he said with his usual confidence.

"But what if we don't?"

"Then we don't. We'll survive. We'll get in touch with our families somehow and let them know we're okay. And if a trainer wants to catch you, he'll have to go through me."

"But what if–"

"Misty, I'm scared too," Ash interrupted. "But we can't let fear paralyze us. We've been through worse stuff than this. Now come on, there's a pack of ratatta not too far from here, so if you want dinner tonight..." He winked at her, and the two of them ran out of the den.

* * *

"So how does it feel now?" Ruth asked, slightly dazed. 

Misty looked towards the ceiling for an answer. "The same way, pretty much," she said. "The past six months are like a strange dream or a movie... not as real as a memory."

Ash nodded. "It's kinda freaky, really. Like that Lao Tsu guy... said something about not being sure if he was Lao Tsu waking up from a dream where he was a butterfly, or whether he was a butterfly now dreaming he was Lao Tsu, or something like..." Ash's sentence was cut off by an enormous yawn which Misty echoed, though not to the same degree.

"Oh, goodness, you two must be exhausted," Delilah said, glancing at the clock. "You can sleep in Ash's old room; I turned it into a guest room just for the two of you in case you ever decided to come here."

Boaz nodded. "We should get going, Ruth," he said. "We've stayed longer than we planned."

"Well, we hardly planned for them to show up, now did we?" Ruth said with a hint of annoyance. She turned to Ash and said, "But dear, how did you two get back?"

Ash shrugged. "We woke up this morning and those stones were glowing, so we herded up the kids, dragged the backpack out of the den, and next thing we know we... sort of evolved back into humans."

Everyone stood in silence for a moment, pondering the last point, before a gigantic yawn from Misty broke the silence.

"Right," Delilah yelled. "Off you two go; you're in my house and you'll do as I tell you. Now go to bed!"

"Five more minutes, Mom?" Ash whined.

* * *

"That was an adventure," Misty said softly as she and Ash lay down in their bed. 

"Mmhmm," Ash mumbled.

On the floor Pikachu was busy getting the kits in order to go to bed. One of them, Sparky, protested loudly.

"Jolt," Ash said threateningly.

"Veee," Sparky whined as he curled up and attempted to go to sleep.

Misty smiled. "I wonder what Blossom would say about all this," she said.

Ash's face darkened. "Yeah..." he said dejectedly.

Misty inwardly cursed herself for bringing up the subject. "Stop worrying about her, Ash."

"I can't help it. I mean, what if–"

"What did you tell me about what-if's? I'm worried about her too. I know the two of you were close, but it sounds like she got a good trainer. Meanwhile, we've got bigger fish to fry."

"Like what?"

"Like you'll have to defend your League title in two months."

Ash sat bolt upright. "Two months?" he nearly yelled. "Come on, Misty, we've got to start training!" He started to get out of the bed, but Misty was faster and managed to pin him into place.

"Not yet," she said softly.

"But Mist–" Ash said, but he was silenced by Misty's finger on his lips.

"Not yet," she whispered, leaning close to him.

"Kachu pika," Pikachu grumbled, opening one eye.

Misty sighed and resumed her place next to Ash. "Vap eon," she muttered.

"Chu, Pikachupi," Pikachu yelled, now fully awake.

"Vap vap eon vaporeon," Misty yelled back.

"Pika pika pi!"

"Por vap!"

"JOLT JOLTEON!" Ash yelled, turning over and burying his face in his pillow.


	2. Reunion

So here's the next chapter. I guess I'll just keep going and see what happens, ni? This should clear up a few points… (previous chapter has been updated for a few continuity changes a.k.a. Pikachu is male)

And for those interested, I am realizing how many ideas I'm getting from RavenK7's story. You can read some of it over at Alex Warlorn's page.

* * *

Ash woke up with a groan. He glanced out the window at the sunrise, smiled, and collapsed back on his pillow, still letting it sink into his mind that he didn't have to get up with the sun and hunt for nine hungry mouths. Slowly, he reached across the bed and touched Misty's arm, letting the backs of his fingers glide along her smooth skin. After six months of fur, everything old was new again.

Why is it that good moments always seem to get ruined?

"Ash, dear," Delilah said through the closed door, "You need to get up if you're going to work for Professor Oak like you promised."

"Yes, Mom," Ash groaned. Misty stirred at the noise but didn't wake up. Ash slowly slid out of the covers and walked over to his dresser, being careful to step over the kits and Pikachu on the floor.  
—-

Misty whacked the sleeping Ash in the face again with her tail. "Get some food," she nearly yelled. "I'm fricking starved! I haven't had anything to eat all day!"

Ash opened one eye. "You had the raticate this morning, the two pidgey and the spearow before lunch, and the freaking weepinbell I dragged in here ten minutes ago."

Misty whacked Ash again; no easy task considering the six kits attached to her underside nursing. "Go get me some food!" she yelled again.

With a sigh Ash pulled himself up and headed out the door.

Pikachu was sitting calmly outside gnawing on a piece of a tree root. "Ah, the trials of the afflicted," he muttered as Ash exited the den.

"Shut up," Ash said with a smirk. "You know you'll be doing the same thing someday."

Pikachu took the root out of his mouth and held it triumphantly over his head. "But today is not that day!"  
—-

"Ah, so good to see you again, Ash," Professor Oak said as Ash walked into the lab wearing a button-up short sleeved shirt and khaki pants. "You'll need a coat; they're in the closet to your left."

Ash sorted through the closet and finally found a white lab coat in his size. "Thanks for letting me work here, Professor," Ash said as he tried to find his way into the coat.

Oak waved his hand. "It's nothing, Ash. You show up after everyone thinks you're dead, you deserve a break or two. Besides, I know how much you like research."

Ash rolled his eyes. "You're kidding, right? That class was one of the most boring things that's ever happened to me."

"Yes, but your paper on the social structure of pikachus and raichus was one of the best works of research I've ever read. You really should consider going back to school, you know. I hear Saffron College is offering a scholarship for qualified individuals willing to study eevee and its evolutions."

Ash bristled at the mention of eevee, but did his best not to betray any feelings. Calm down, he thought to himself, he doesn't know about what happened. "I don't know," he said out loud, "I'd kinda like to stay out of the big city for right now."

Oak chuckled. "Maybe so," he said. "But you've got the same eye for behavior your father did."

Ash jumped. "You knew my father?" he asked quickly.

Oak smiled. "Not personally, no. But he was an assistant for a colleague of mine when I was still working for Silph. He wrote some remarkable material, and while it wasn't extremely scientific, it was incredibly revealing about the culture and social institutes of many different pokmon. And then…" He drifted off, apparently lost in thought.

"Then what?"

"He disappeared. He was exploring a bit of wilderness near Silence Bridge and called in one day, saying he had found something and he wasn't sure when he'd be back. Next thing we know he starts disappearing months at a time. He drops out of the research business, gets married, moves to Pallet, and just… disappears."

Ash stared off into space. He had seen his father's death certificate in the league's computer system, but his mother had always said that he was still alive.

"I was almost afraid the same thing had happened to you, Ash," Oak continued. "Especially when you sent all your pokmon back to me. But your mother was optimistic as always," he added with a smile.

Ash nodded. "So what are we doing today?"

"Getting the starters ready," Oak said with a twinkle in his eye. "Time to send out the next group of future pokmon masters, eh, Ash?"

Ash rolled his eyes. "Is it going to be more than four kids?"

"A lot more," Oak said, walking towards an outside door. "Since the Viridian Gym's been doing so poorly, they're sending the kids from Viridian down here to get starters."

Ash chuckled. "Is that bonehead Peter still trying to run that thing?"

"Not for much longer, I'm afraid. He's resigning at the end of the week."

Ash stopped in his tracks. "What?"

"Ash, you knew he was a temporary replacement from the beginning. Ever since Giovanni was asked to leave they haven't been able to keep a steady leader at that gym for more than a year. Peter's hung in there as long as he could, but he's not cut out to be a gym leader. You and I both know that. So he's closing up in time for the league championships. After that, they'll probably pick a new leader. And he'll quit after a year." Oak sighed. "If they don't fix this problem soon Viridian's going to go to pot. And Pallet won't be far behind."

"But you're here," Ash said.

Oak sighed. "Ash, I perform research here. I don't hire many people; I just send people out on their journeys. I'm not exactly a boon to the town's economy." Suddenly he brightened up. "But, enough of all this. We've got to get these pokmon ready."

Ash followed Oak at a small distance. "Yeah," he muttered sadly, "get the next group of trainers ready."  
—-

"What's a trainer, dad?" the six eevees asked simultaneously.

The jolteon looked at them quizzically. "What?"

Sparky spoke up. "Uncle Pikachu was warning us to look out for trainers when we were playing outside. He told us to ask you what a trainer was."

Ash looked at Pikachu who was hiding in the back of the den wearing a sheepish grin.

"Well, you know what a human is, right?" Ash began.

"They're those tall pokmon with no powers, right?" yelled Dewdrop.

Ash made a face. "Not really, but you get the idea. Now, a trainer is a human that catches and trains pokmon to fight. They look for weak pokmon, catch them, and teach them different ways to attack other pokmon."

The kits were all horrified.

"They—they make pokmon attack each other? Just for fun?" Ember said weakly.

Ash opened his mouth to answer, but he stopped before any words could come out. He looked toward the ceiling, trying to come up with an answer.

"Not just for fun," Pikachu said, walking over to the conversation. "Some trainers want to help their pokmon become better, so they teach them to use their abilities in new ways. For example, my trainer taught me how to focus my electricity into one powerful thunderbolt that's strong enough to bring down a growlithe."

The kits responded with general exclamations of wonder while Ash slowly slipped outside. Pikachu continued the talk. "And not all trainers are mean, either. Some trainers" He glanced toward where Ash had been, but finding nothing, continued. "Some trainers actually try to become friends with their pokmon. My trainer is one of my best friends, and he and I have had so many adventures you could talk for hours about them."

"You must have had a very good trainer," Blossom said in her usual wise manner.

Pikachu looked her in the eye. "The best. And he still is the best."  
—-

Professor Oak sent Ash over to check on the group of charmanders while he got the pokballs ready. The charmanders, all five of them, were excited to see him. He was a human, and humans brought food.

Ash slowly handed them a small bit of food each, trying not to think about what was going to happen to them. Would they get good trainers? Bad ones? And what right did humans have to take them away from their families? How could he support an institution that—  
Ash banished those thoughts. He was a trainer. And now he saw both sides of the equation.  
—-

"What happened back there, Pikapi?" Pikachu said as he walked out of the den.

Ash sighed. "I don't know…" he muttered. "It's like… I don't know, everything my life has been so far looks…"

"Looks different from the other side?" Pikachu asked.

Ash nodded.

"Well, quit worrying," Pikachu said with authority. "Any pokmon in the world would give half their powers in order to have you as a trainer."

Ash looked back towards the den, the sounds of playful roughhousing drifting out. "But how many of my pokmon were like that?" He looked at Pikachu. "How many of you guys did I steal from this?"

Pikachu put his paw on Ash's side. "I'm not going to answer that question," he said. "This is the way the world works. Everyone leaves home eventually. Human kids go off to be trainers or work or whatever, and pokmon go off to start their own families or train with humans." He sighed. "I know I wasn't the most agreeable at first, Pikapi, but I wouldn't trade my life with you for anything. Anything. And I'm sure your kits are going to have good trainers too."

Ash stiffened. "But I don't want to lose them…" he whispered.

Pikachu sighed. "Forgive me for being blunt, but won't they be better off trained than dead?"

Ash glared at Pikachu, growling. "What?"

"They won't be around forever, Pikapi," Pikachu said calmly. "Either they'll evolve and leave on their own, they'll get caught by a trainer, or they'll be lunch for a charizard. Ho-Oh forbid the last thing happen, but you're in the wild right now. That's what happens."

Ash backed away from Pikachu and lay down. Before he could say anything else, however, he smelled someone coming out of the den.

"Hey, Blossom," Ash said weakly.

Blossom cocked her head. "Are you alright, dad?" she asked.

Ash nodded slightly. "What's up?"

"What was your trainer like?"

Pikachu looked at Ash worriedly, but Ash simply looked straight at Pikachu and said, "He was one of the best friends I ever had." Turning to Blossom he continued. "He taught me how to be strong, how never to give up even when things look bad, and how always to follow what you know is true, even if you get hurt."

"Did you see the world?"

Ash looked confused. "What do you mean?"

Blossom looked up at her father with a dreamy look in her eyes. "I want to see everything Mom was talking about. The sun setting over the ocean, the mountains that touch the clouds, the rock towers the humans build… I want to see it all."

Ash nuzzled his daughter. "And you will, Blossom."  
—-

"Everything all right, Ash?" Professor Oak said, placing his hand on Ash's shoulder.

Ash blinked out of his trance. "Yeah," he said quietly, "just thinking about someone."

Oak smiled. "Well, if you're back down to earth, I need some help. One of the squirtles isn't feeling very good, and you may be able to help. I have to go answer the door, but if you could check on that, it'd be great."

Ash obediently made his way towards the pond. Several of the squirtles were crowded around one particular squirtle who was lying down looking slightly pale.

"Well, what happened to you big guy?" Ash asked, stroking the squirtle's bald head.

Another squirtle tried to get Ash's attention. "Squirt squirtle irrrr squ," it said worriedly.

"I just want to see what's wrong with him," Ash said gently.

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Ash caught himself. Glancing around to make sure Professor Oak wasn't nearby, he leaned down closer to the squirtles.

"What happened to him," he said in Jolteon.

The squirtles were taken aback by his change in language. The one that spoke first recovered the quickest and asked, "How does a human speak another's language?"

"It's a long story," Ash said. "I'm here to help your friend, and I need you to tell me what happened to him."

The squirtle let loose a long rant that, roughly translated, portrayed the sick squirtle as a stupid idiot that ate the plants that everyone told him several times not to eat. She pointed at a small grove of plants growing near the pond.

"I told him not to eat them, his mother told him not to eat them, but did he listen? No!" the squirtle finished.

Ash sat there, very amused. Double checking to make sure Oak wasn't coming, he said, "I'll take care of him." He picked up the sick squirtle and headed back to the laboratory.

He opened the back door to the lab and was mobbed by five eevees dashing out in a headlong, rough-and tumble free-for-all. Stumbling, he managed to trip his way into Misty.

"Hey, Professor," Misty said.

Ash straightened his coat. "Not 'Professor' yet."

"Yet?"

"Well, I don't know. League champion isn't exactly a full-time job, you know."

Misty shrugged, then looked at the squirtle in Ash's arms. "What's wrong with him?"

"Food poisoning. A little ipecac and he'll turn."

The squirtle groaned.

"Shut up," Ash said playfully. "It's better than having your gut explode." He winked at Misty.

Misty giggled. "I'll leave you to your work," she said as she walked out the door.

Ash handed the squirtle off to one of the attendants and went looking for Professor Oak. He found him near the X-ray machine attending to a growlithe that was obviously in pain.

"Is Ifrit going to be okay?" a girl, apparently the growlithe's trainer, asked.

Oak said something back to her, but Ash didn't catch it. He took another hard look at the girl, trying to figure out why she looked so familiar. He racked his brains, trying to sort through the difficult memories attached to her. When he finally did figure it out, he walked out of the room as inconspicuously as he could and sat down heavily on the floor.

Of all the trainers to show up… she had to be one of them.  
—-

Sparky ran into the den at full speed. "Blossom's fighting a human!" he yelled.

Without thinking Ash bolted out of the den, nearly running Sparky over in the process.

"Ash, wait!" Misty yelled, "Don't get caught too!" She turned to Pikachu. "Can you…?"

Pikachu nodded. "I'll keep him out of trouble," he said, running for the door.

"And Blossom too!"

Pikachu turned back to Misty with a worried look that said everything before running off.

He ran as fast as he could toward Ash's scent, even performing an Agility technique for good measure. He finally managed to catch up to Ash and brought him down with a well-aimed tackle.

Ash brushed off the attack and muttered, "Stay out of my way, Pikachu," before running off again.

This time Pikachu bit Ash on the tail. "Stop before you get yourself caught," he yelled.

"Better me than her," Ash shot back.

"Wrong!" Pikachu said. "At the very least, let's approach calmly and not rush in headlong."

Ash glared, seething with anger, but followed Pikachu's advice nonetheless. Much more quietly, he poked his head through to the clearing where Blossom's scent led.

She was fighting a growlithe. From the looks of things, it was very young and hadn't seen much battling experience. Both it and Blossom were putting up a good fight. The growlithe's trainer was to the left of Ash and Pikachu and was wearing a dark spagetti-strap shirt and white capri pants with several stains on them. Her belt had no pokballs on it, but she had one enlarged and ready in her hand.

"Tackle it again, Ifrit," she yelled. The growlithe barked in reply and charged toward Blossom.

"Run, Blossom!" Ash yelled.

Blossom dodged the tackle and looked at Ash who was silently pleading with her to run away. She looked at the growlithe and its trainer, then looked back at Ash with a determined look in her eyes. She turned to face the growlithe and barked in defiance.

This time, she wasn't able to dodge the tackle. She collapsed on the ground and barely stirred.

The pokball seemed to fly in slow motion. Ash watched helplessly as he saw his daughter pulled into it, praying it wouldn't hold her.

Ash couldn't see the light on the pokball turn green, but he heard the loud rejoicing from the trainer. He wanted to run, to show that trainer what he felt like, to beat that growlithe into the ground, but his growing feeling of helplessness combined with Pikachu's firm grip on his tail kept him in his place.

The trainer and her growlithe began walking away, but the growlithe noticed something and stayed back a little. When the trainer was out of the clearing, it turned to Ash.

"Don't do anything stupid," Pikachu whispered.

Ash bared his teeth and growled, "Make sure the human takes care of her."

The growlithe nodded. "I will," he said. With that he bounded after his trainer.

Ash stood still in shock for five minutes before he whispered to Pikachu, "I could have helped her."

"Really," Pikachu said, not sounding convinced at all.

Ash snapped. He charged Pikachu and knocked him into the clearing.

"For once, could you not be so fricking practical?" Ash yelled.

"What would you have done?" Pikachu answered.

"This!" Ash attacked Pikachu again. But this time, Pikachu was ready. He quickly side-stepped the attack and bit Ash on the tail, sending an electrical attack through the bite. Ash howled in pain and flung Pikachu against a tree.

Pikachu picked himself up. "Forgive me, Pikapi," he said under his breath. At the other end of the clearing Ash watched Pikachu, the fur on his back bristled in anger. He launched a thunderbolt at Pikachu who thrust his tail into the dirt, grounding himself. He immediately followed that with a Quick Attack. Pikachu rolled along the ground and righted itself in time to launch a Quick Attack of its own straight into Ash's side, knocking him onto the ground.

The two combatants faced each other again.

"Done yet?" Pikachu said.

Ash growled threateningly. Summoning all his rage, he built up his electrical field, yellow sparks jumping among his fur. Pikachu anticipated the attack and started backing away slowly.

With a primal scream Ash released his electricity in an undirected attack. Pikachu attempted to ground himself again, but the force of the attack knocked his balance off. The electricity charred the trees around the clearing, and a resounding thunderclap could be heard through the forest.

Pikachu opened his eyes slowly. He saw Ash trying to get up, staggering, and finally collapsing again. Slowly, Pikachu crawled over to his friend. Both of them were charred, bruised, and in all other ways worn out.

"Done yet?" Pikachu said.

Ash opened one eye. "Yeah," he whispered. "Sorry, pal… I guess I just…"

"Don't worry about it," Pikachu said. "You had to release it somehow. And I'm sorry I was so blunt. I just didn't want you to do anything…"

"Stupid?"

Pikachu nodded.

"Thanks," Ash said. "She—she's going to be okay, right?"

"Yeah…" Pikachu said. "She wanted to go." He looked once more in the direction the trainer had left in. "She's off to see the world now."

Ash squeezed his eyes shut, pointed his head to the sky and howled mournfully.  
—-

Ash collected himself, drying the tears starting to form and clearing his throat to make sure his voice wouldn't crack. He wasn't afraid of showing emotion, he was afraid of having to explain his sudden change of character to Oak. With a deep breath, he walked back into the room.

The girl was still there, sitting off to the side dangling her legs impatiently—or in anxiety—while Oak was in the process of putting up the fluoroscope.

"Ah, there you are, Ash," Oak said quickly. "Keep an eye on this Growlithe, will you?"

"His name is Ifrit!" the girl said with an air of annoyance.

"Right, Ifrit," Oak continued. "I have to lead Julia outside and get someone who can set Ifrit's leg. It looks like it's broken."

"Was she pushing him too hard," Ash muttered under his breath.

Julia appeared not to notice, but Oak made a face and whispered to Ash, "Behave yourself, Ash. It got into a fight with a wild Mankey, that's all. Now just keep an eye on it until I get back."

Ash nodded. "Sorry," he said as Oak led Julia out of the room.

Once the other humans had gone, Ifrit tried to stand up. Finding that the pain was still there, it settled itself back down.

Ash walked over to the growlithe and steadied it. "Take it easy, fella," he said. "Don't overwork yourself."

Ifrit sniffed Ash's hands and looked up at him, startled. "You are the Jolteon from the forest," it growled in its language, "yet you are human. How?"

Ash sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "English?" he asked.

Ifrit nodded. "I can understand you."

"How did you know it was me?"

The growlithe gave a toothy grin. "Your scent hasn't changed."

Ash smiled. "No… I guess not…" He looked towards the ground and asked softly, "Is… is she…?"

"Is she your daughter?" The growlithe asked. Ash nodded. "Then you have every reason to be proud of her. She is an excellent fighter and a good friend."

Ash couldn't help but let a small smile tease his face. "And your trainer?"

"Julia spoils us rotten." Ifrit smirked. "But in all seriousness, she is a good trainer for us. She will not accept anything less than our very best, and she is a good friend and companion to us all."

Oak walked back into the room with another aide in a similar lab coat in tow. "Thank you, Ash," he said, motioning to the aide where various items were. "If you could go outside and check on things, that would be great."

"Right," Ash said in a daze.

"Grace and Peace follow you," Ifrit growled.

Ash bowed his head slightly towards the growlithe. He wanted to return the gesture, but he couldn't do anything obvious without attracting the attention of Professor Oak. Slowly he made his way to the back door and stepped through, apprehensive of what he would find once he got out there.

He passed by the charmanders and the squirtles just to make sure nothing serious was happening… and to delay running into Julia as long as he could.

Ash played over the scenario several times in his head. Once he punched her, then Misty yelled at him and… he didn't want that to happen. Once he yelled at her… with similar results. Ash clenched his fists and told himself to keep his emotions in check. The most important thing to remember, he thought, is that she doesn't know the connection I have to Blossom, so anything I do would just look stupid and uncalled for to her.

He had tried to guess where Julia would be. He hadn't guessed next to the pond chatting away with Misty.

She was wearing essentially the same outfit she had been wearing in the wilderness, except now Ash noticed her top was red, not just dark. Having been a colorblind jolteon, he hadn't noticed before. She and Misty seemed to be carrying on a lively conversation while several pokmon played with each other next to and in the pond.

Ash's heart skipped a beat when he saw the eevees playing a short distance away. 1, 2, 3… 6. All six of his children were there.

"Ash, there you are!" Misty called. Ash jumped, startled, as Misty and Julia walked over to him.

"Ash, this is Julia," Misty said, motioning towards the young trainer. "Julia, this is Ash."

Julia was visibly impressed. "Woah," she nearly yelled. "Ash Ketchum? _The_ Ash Ketchum?" She extended her hand which Ash shook.

"It's nice to meet you, too," Ash managed to say.

Julia opened her mouth to continue, but she appeared to change her mind and looked off to the side, embarassed.

"What?" Ash asked, slightly amused.

"Well, it's just…" she said with a slight flair. She was obviously trying to figure out what to say. "Well, Misty was telling me about how you and her were training these eevees—"

Ash shot a look to Misty who returned it with a look that seemed to say, "What, you thought I'd tell her the truth?" Neither went noticed by Julia.

"...and so I was just thinking," Julia continued, "that, well… I just feel-well, _bad_ about catching Crystal-I mean, Blossom. You named her Blossom, right?" Ash nodded slowly. "Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is… well, do you want her back?"

The question caught Ash off guard. Did he want his daughter back? What kind of a question was that? Of **course** he wanted his daughter back!

But before he blurted out an answer, he stopped. He was deciding his daughter's future, and it wouldn't be a good idea to just rush into things like he usually did.

First, he saw the uneasy look on Julia's face. It was someone trying to be happy, but knowing that she was making a decision that wasn't easy. It was the same emotion he had had whenever he had given one of his pokmon to another trainer or set one of them free. All those times he had wondered whether he had made the right decision. And now someone was asking him to do what he had asked of so many other trainers.  
—-

"How high are the stone towers, Dad?" Blossom asked.

Ash furrowed his brow. "They're pretty tall…" he began.

"Taller than the trees?"

"Oh, they're much taller than the trees," Ash laughed. "Some of them are so tall, the humans say they touch the sky."

"Wow…" Blossom said, a faraway look in her eyes. "And they climb to the top every day?"

"No," Ash said. "Some humans just live in them. And they don't have to climb; they have machines that carry them to the top. You just get in a box, and it lifts you all the way to the top of the tower."

"Will you take me to ride in one of those someday?"

Ash smiled at his daughter. "Of course."  
—-

"More than anything," Ash whispered.

Julia's face fell. But before she could call Blossom, Ash stopped her.

"But," he said, "I know that's not what she wants." He looked over at the playing eevees. By now, Blossom had noticed the third human and was slowly walking towards Ash.

"Does she like you?" Ash asked, a little louder.

"I think she does," Julia said. "She and Ifrit get along really well."

Ash smiled. "Promise me two things," he said. "One, I need you to be her friend as much as her trainer."

Julia nodded. "Don't worry about that, sir!"

"And second," Ash said, leaning in close, "make sure she gets to ride in an elevator."

"What?" Julia asked. When she saw Ash was serious, she nodded. "Whatever you say, Mr. Ash."

Ash waved it off. "It's just Ash." A nudge at his ankle caught his attention. Ash looked down to see his daughter looking up at him with a very confused expression.

Slowly, Ash knelt down and rubbed her head with his hand, letting her catch his scent. "Your name's Crystal, now, right?" he said softly.

"I'll leave you two alone," Julia said, walking back over to Misty.

Crystal nuzzled closer to Ash. "What happened to you and Mom," she said in her language.

Ash glanced over to make sure Julia was out of earshot before answering, in Jolteon, "I don't know for sure." He scratched her behind the ears. "I'm so happy to see you."

"Me too," Crystal said. Suddenly she perked up. "Oh, Dad, it's so cool! Julia's going all over the place! I get to fight battles, and I didn't like that so much at first but Ifrit—he's the growlithe that attacked me—anyway, he's been helping me out and I'm getting really really good at it! And we get to stay in Centers with really nice beds. And Julia says she's going to take us to the mountains next, which is so cool! I wish you could see all this!"

Ash smiled. "I did see it."

Crystal stopped. "You did? When?" Her eyes opened wider. "You—you're a trainer too?"

"Me and your mother," Ash said with a smirk. "Your Uncle Pikachu was the first pokmon I ever got, and he's still my best."

"Wow…" was all Crystal could say. "But… then who were you talking about when I asked who your trainer was?"

Ash furrowed his brow as he tried to remember the conversation. "Oh, that? Yeah…"

"Did you lie to me?" Crystal asked in mock offense.

"Not exactly," Ash said. "I was talking about Pikachu."

"Oh…" Crystal said, nodding her head in understanding.

Ash looked over his shoulder and saw Julia coming back. Quickly he turned back to Crystal and said, in English, "Crystal, listen; don't tell anyone about—you know, your mother and I."

"What, that you're human?" Crystal said, cocking her head.

"Yes. Other humans just… well, I'm not ready for anyone else to know yet."

"But what if Julia asks me?"

Ash sighed. "If she can understand you, if you feel like you can trust her with a secret, then you can tell her. But make sure she doesn't tell anyone."

"Okay," Crystal said.

Julia walked up. "You almost ready, Crystal?" she said. "We need to leave soon if we're going to get to the next town before dark."

"Vee," Crystal yipped. She turned to Ash and said, "Eeee, vee-ee."

"I'll miss you too," Ash whispered. "Now go say goodbye to your brothers and sisters; they're going to miss you too."

Crystal ran off towards the other eevees, and Ash turned to Julia. "It was nice meeting you, Julia," he said, shaking her hand one more time. "Will I be seeing you at the tournament in two months?"

Julia shook her head. "No, I still need to get four more badges. I just came over here to catch some different pokmon."

"That's good. Getting a diverse team?"

Julia nodded. "Though I don't know what Crystal'll want to evolve into. Do you?"

Ash thought for a second. "No."

Julia shrugged. "Oh, well. C'mon, guys, let's go!" she yelled.

Ash watched her go, followed by a ratatta, a spearow perched on her shoulder, and a small eevee at her feet.

"Goodbye," he said softly.  
—-

"I'm proud of you, Ash," Misty said that night as they got into bed. "You acted very civil today."

"'Acted' is the key word," he grunted.

Misty nodded. "I know. It's hard for me, too, Ash."

Ash looked at his wife as she continued. "I mean, I don't show it as much as you do. I know you two were very close, but it's for the best."

"It's okay," Ash said, pulling up the sheets. "You don't have to console me." He took a deep breath. "I'm glad I saw her… I finally got to say goodbye properly."

"I see…" Misty said. "Before it was like she was stolen, but now—"

"Now it's like we let her go." He smiled. "And you're right; it is better this way. We can't hold on to them forever."

"Pii pika kachu, Pikapi," Pikachu said from the floor.

"Silence from the peanut gallery," Misty shot back.


	3. Normality

Okay, how typical is this. No updates for a few months, and when I do update, it's crap. Seriously, folks, this chapter isn't much more than a quick diversion and some semblance of character development. Hopefully I can get to the league finals… eventually… Anyhoo, enjoy.  
—  
Ash glanced at his alarm clock. 8:30 in the morning, be at Professor Oak's by 7:00, he was doing fine.

Wait—  
"AAAAAH!" he screamed, jumping out of bed. "I overslept again!"

Before he could run downstairs, Misty grabbed him by his shorts and pulled him back down onto the bed. "I set your clock two hours ahead last night, sleepyhead," she said. "Be quiet; you'll wake up the kids."

Ash blushed and scratched the back of his head. "Oh, that makes sense now."

Misty didn't need to worry about the kits, however. The usual suspects, Ember and Dreamer, were already running around downstairs with Delilah and Pikachu attempting to keep them in line. The girls, Dewdrop and Sunrise, were watching Mimey perform a few of his tricks. Ash got out of the bed, stretched, and tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. When he finally managed to clear his vision he saw Sparky walking slowly into the room.

"Eev," he yawned before curling up in his spot on the floor.

"Good night?" Ash said. "What are you talking about?"

Sparky looked up at him slowly and said, "Vee?"

Ash groaned. "Misty," he said, "we've got to teach our kids English." He concentrated for a second and addressed Sparky again, this time in Jolteon.

"So, what do you mean by 'Good night'?"

Sparky didn't even bother to open his eyes. "Isn't it night?"

Ash looked out the window. It had to have been sunrise at least a half hour ago. "Not the last time I checked, no."

Sparky was too tired to even shrug. "Good morning, then."

"Did you stay up all night again?" Misty said, managing to convey the persistent-mother tone even in a pokemon language.

"Yeah, I…" Sparky trailed off.

"We'll talk later," Misty said, shifting back to English. "You need to get going."

Ash nodded as he grabbed his trademark hat and went out the door.  
—  
"Sparky, Mom says to come back inside the den," Sunrise said to her brother.

"Yeah, okay," Sparky said absently, not moving or even breaking his gaze from the night sky.

Sunrise could tell when she was being ignored. "Sparky, Mom said!"

"Huh?" Sparky finally turned to look at his sister.

She sighed. "Mom says to come in."

"What?" He ran over to her, and the two of them began walking back towards the den. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I told you a hundred times."

"Did not."

"Did so."

"Did not!"

"What do you do out here, anyway?" She looked up at the sky, or what little of it she could see through the trees.

Sparky stopped. "I'm just listening."

"Listening to what?"

"Everything." He looked up and caught a glimpse of the crescent moon through the leaves. "The stars, the moon, the trees…" He stopped when he heard Sunrise snort in disapproval. "What," he said with more than a little indignation, "don't tell me you don't hear it."

"No, stupid," she said, turning away from him and continuing back towards the den. "Besides, nothing happens at night."

Sparky followed her at a distance. "Nothing happens during the day, either," he muttered.  
—  
Ash plowed through the doors of Oak's lab at 6:59 sharp.

"Ah," Oak said with a smile. "Early for once, are we, Ash?"

Ash grinned and flashed a "peace" sign. "Would you expect anything else, Professor? After all, we've got a job to do!"

"Nice to see you have your old self back," Oak said. He produced a clipboard and handed Ash a sheet of paper from the middle. "You'll be handling H through M. All you need to do is give them their pokedexes, pokeballs, and let them choose a starter. You might want to give them a little advice on which one to pick, eh?"

"Maybe," Ash said. "What if they want a pikachu?"

"Tell them no. Not only were you a special case, but I don't have any to give this year."

Ash nodded. "When are they supposed to get here?"

Oak looked at his watch. "Half an hour. Usually they don't come until 8:00, but this year I had to make the exception since there's so many people coming."

"Okay," Ash said. He started to walk towards the table labeled "H – M" but stopped before he got there. "Professor?"

"Yes, Ash?"

"What did you mean, 'my old self back'?"

"Nothing personal," Oak said gently. "I just noticed that ever since you and Misty—well, came back from the dead, so to speak, you hadn't seemed to be quite as cheerful as you usually were before…" He trailed off.

Ash pondered the statement for all of two seconds. "I guess I just had a lot to think about," he said before shrugging it off and walking over to the table.  
—  
"Are you awake, Sparky?" Misty asked in Vaporeon.

Sparky didn't even open his eyes. "Am I awake when I'm sleeping? Or perhaps we're all dreaming? Either way we don…" he slurred.

Misty sighed. "What's five plus five?"

Sparky flicked an ear. "Brown."

"He's not awake," Misty muttered as she walked down the stairs. Clapping her hands briskly, she said in a raised voice, "Okay, Ember, Dreamer, Dewdrop, Sunrise—"

The four eevees stopped their activities and looked at their mom.

"You guys want to go to the park and check on Dad?"

The children yipped their ascent as Misty pulled a sky blue shirt over her spaghetti strap and walked out the door. She didn't even bother to try to keep the yelling, scampering, roughhousing kits in line apart from the occasional growl when one of them got to far ahead.

"Are you okay?" someone asked.

Misty jumped. "What?"

A mom in her thirties had stopped her minivan next to Misty. "You sounded like you were growling there," she said, pushing away a stray strand of blond hair.

Misty blushed. "Yeah, well…" She fumbled for an excuse. "You have to speak their language if you're going to keep them in line," she said, motioning towards the eevees.

The woman smiled. "I wonder if that would work for the monsters back there," she said.

Misty looked past her and saw two boys, one ten and the other around seven, roughhousing in the back seat.

"Good luck," Misty said with a smile and a wave.

The mom caught sight of Misty's ring. "Same to you; you'll need it." She pointed to her own before driving off.

Misty breathed a sigh of relief. "I already need it," she muttered.  
—  
"Are you really Ash Ketchum?" the boy asked.

Ash nodded. "And what's your name?"

"Jason Melville," he said proudly. "And I'm going to be the greatest Pokemon Master in the world!" He looked at Ash, caught himself, and muttered, "Well, except for you."

Ash scoffed. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, no one's ever going to be better than you; you're the greatest Pokemon Master there ever was!"

Ash just smiled. "You ever hear of Satoshi Tetsuma?"

Jason shook his head.

"He was one of the greatest Pokemon Masters of his time. He never had more than ten pokemon, but those ten were incredible. He trained them as hard as he could, and he loved them like they were family. And then one day, something amazing happened."

"What?" asked several kids, now crowded around Ash's table to hear the story.

"He lost."

The kids were speechless with disappointment. "That's it?" a girl said.

Ash nodded. "One day he went out for a battle, and someone beat him. It was a young person, not fifteen years old, or something like that. And just like that, the greatest Pokemon Master wasn't the greatest anymore. But that didn't bother him. He just went on training and doing whatever he did. He wasn't the best anymore, but he was the best that he could be, and that was good enough for him.

"So you see, being the greatest isn't as important as doing your best, giving it all you got. And who knows, you might actually be the best someday!"

Murmurs of ascent could be heard through the small crowd. "Excellent speech, Ash," Oak added. "But you're falling behind."

"What?" Ash looked at the crowd in front of his table, looked at his sheet, and blushed slightly. "Okay, Jason, here's your Pokedex, a few pokeballs to get you started, and what pokemon would you like?"

"A meowth."

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Haven't heard that one before," he muttered to himself. To Jason he said, "We don't have any meowths, just charmanders, bulbasurs, and squirtles."

Jason's face fell. "Oh, I guess I'll take a charmander, then."

"What's wrong with squirtle?" a voice asked over Ash's shoulder.

Ash didn't even turn around. "Because everyone knows that fire pokemon are a whole lot better than water pokemon, Misty," he said, winking at Jason. He handed Jason his charmander. "Don't let him out until you get outside; it's a little crowded in here. Take care of him. Be his friend, but be his trainer too. Now go have fun, okay, Jason?"

"Yes, sir!" Jason said.

"And don't get the spearows angry!" Misty yelled after him.

Ash sighed. "I hate being called 'sir.' Makes me feel old."

"And being married with six kids doesn't?" Misty whispered in his ear.

"Kits, Misty; we don't have any kids."

Misty smiled coyly. "If you say so."

Ash paled. "Are you—"

"No."

Ash sighed in relief. He turned back to the crowd in front of him. "Okay, who's next?"  
—  
Pikachu walked calmly out of the den towards Sparky, sitting as always with his nose toward the night sky.

"Everything all right, Sparks?" Pikachu said, taking a seat next to the four-month-old eevee.

"It was my fault," he said softly.

"You mean Blossom getting caught?" Pikachu said. "No, it wasn't."

"I told her not to go, but she went," Sparky continued. "I should have stopped her."

Pikachu sighed. "It's not your fault, Sparky," he reiterated. "She was ready to go, so she went." His eyes drifted up. "What do you do out here, anyway?"

Sparky opened his mouth to answer, then thought better of it. "Nothing," he muttered, getting up.

"Wait," Pikachu said. He glanced up at the sky and continued. "You're listening to them, aren't you?"

Sparky sat back down. "How did you know?"

Pikachu smirked. "I knew an umbreon once. Every so often I'd find him outside just staring up at the stars like you do."

Sparky lowered his head. "Well," he muttered, "I'm not an umbreon."

"You might become one."

"But I'm named after thunder," Sparky protested. "Lightning. I'm going to be a jolteon like Dad…"

"Do you want to be, or is it just because of your name?"

"Well…" Sparky's voice fell to a hush. "It's what he wants, isn't it?"

Pikachu shook his head gently. "I hate to say this, Sparky, but Pikapi is awful at picking names.When your parents went to name you, they probably just picked random things that they thought of. And besides, look at me; I—" He caught himself and quickly corrected his story. "I mean, my trainer never gave me a proper name, so I just go by Pikachu. We just don't get very good names, that's all."

"But what does Dad naming me have to do with you not having a name?"

"Eh-heh…" Pikachu fumbled for an answer. "Well… your father's trainer didn't give him a very good name, so your father isn't used to giving good names. That's all." He sighed. "The point is, he'll be happy with whatever you want to be. Jolteon, vaporeon, umbreon, whatever."

Sparky nodded and looked back up at the sky. "Why do Mom and Dad fight all the time?"

Pikachu grinned. "Because they love each other a whole lot." When Sparky looked confused, he continued. "Your parents have known each other a long time, and as far as I can remember they've had arguments like this." He motioned back toward the den where the sounds of the latest non-argument were drifting out. "You have arguments with your brothers and sisters, don't you?"

"Yeah, but—"

"It doesn't mean you don't love them, right?"

"Well…" Sparky pondered the last point.

"Still…" muttered Pikachu, "it'd be nice if they didn't argue _quite_ so much…"  
—  
"I mean exactly what I said: We. Have. Two. Weeks. Worth. Of. Money."

"And why don't we have more?"

"Well, I'm sorry, Misty, but I hadn't planned on not having a job for six months and having the League bail on me because they thought I was **dead**."

"So you're blaming me?"

"I never said that!"

"You meant it!"

"Oh, so you're psychic now?"

"I never said that!"

"Look, why do you contradict everything I say?"

"I don't! You just hear me when I do!"

"Like right—"

Misty and Ash turned toward the wall. Five eevees and a pikachu were lined up, four of the eevees in rapt attention while the fifth eevee and Pikachu were digging through a bowl of popcorn.

"Is that kettle corn?" Ash asked.

"Pika," Pikachu answered with an nod.

Ash glanced at Misty. Misty sighed and said, "Fine, we're done. Just save me some."

Ash grinned and grabbed two handfuls of the popcorn. He handed one to Misty and said, in a much more calm voice, "I can call Silph tomorrow and see if they're still going to make good on that endorsement offer."

Misty nodded. "That'll work for the time being. What kind of job were you going to get with the League again?"

Ash sighed. "Sort of a poster-boy type thing. They'd just want me in there to make announcements and that sort of thing. But, since we were MIA for so long, they gave the job to Gary."

Misty nearly spit out her popcorn. "Gary? Are you serious?"

"I am. Apparently he's been doing really well this past year; they say he's a favorite to win the championship. Of course, that could all change once I show up, right Pikachu?"

A muffled "Pikachu!" answered him.

"Besides," Ash said with a shrug, "that's not exactly a high-paying job. I mean, if it was just the two of us, it wouldn't be too much of a problem, but now that we've got a family to take care of…"

Misty chewed her popcorn thoughtfully. "I guess you're right," she said. "I could try to get back into the rotation at Cerulean, but that's such a long way away…"

"Well, they're going to be looking for a new Viridian gym leader… maybe I could… you know…"

"After you win the championship?"

"What?" Ash looked frantically around. "Where's a calendar? Misty! How much time do we have? We gotta start training! Pik—"

Misty clamped her hand over his mouth. "It's been three days since you last checked. You still have enough time."  
—  
It took another twenty minutes to get everyone ready for bed. Sparky, as usual, protested, while Ember and Dreamer kept roughhousing. Finally, most of the chaos had turned to order—or at least some semblance of it.

"Ash," Misty said after the couple had gotten into bed, "Silph is in Saffron, right?"

"I think so," Ash said. "Why?"

"If they want you to come in, do you think we could go see my parents afterwards? Cerulean's just north of Saffron…"

Ash shrugged. "I don't see why not. Any particular reason?"

"Well… I think we kinda scared them when we first got home. I mean, we weren't expecting them to be there, and they _definitely_ weren't expecting us, and it all just kinda…"

Ash chuckled. "Sure thing, Mist. Funny though…"

"What?"

"Well, my mom didn't seem to be that wierded out by the whole thing. I mean, she kinda balked at first, but it certainly seemed like she's warmed up to it by now."

Misty nodded. "Good night, kids," she said to the pile of fur on the floor.

A chorus of "Eevee" came from the pile, as well as a stuttering, "G-g-good night."

Ash and Misty sat bolt upright. "Okay, who said that," Ash said.

Ember poked his head up and reiterated, "G-good night, mom and d-dad."

Ash grinned at Misty. "Well, looks like we've got something else to work on."


	4. Abnormality

Okay, credit goes to Alex Warlorn for one of the ideas in the next few chapters; read the reviews to figure out which one. And to dragon. Also, there won't be nearly as many flashbacks from here on; I intend to focus on Ash and Misty (and the family) moving on with their lives, and that includes figuring out who did this to them… And so begins part two.  
—  
"Hey, I'm Ash Ketchum; I'm here to do a commercial?" Ash said to the receptionist.

The receptionist, who looked like a near relative of Nurse Joy, glanced at Ash and turned to her computer screen. After about ten seconds she turned back and seemed to give Ash a closer look.

Ash himself was a sight. In addition to his usual getup complemented with Pikachu on his shoulder, he had another eevee hanging on his other shoulder, and several chattering eevees could be heard from the floor.

"I—" The receptionist faltered. "I'll tell Myamoto you're here. If you and your—er, _guests_ could wait over there…" She motioned vaguely toward a bank of chairs and walked (rather quickly Ash thought) through a pair of double doors behind her desk.

Ash just smirked. "Welcome to the human world, kids," he said.  
—  
"So, you stand here and hold the phone," the director said to Ash, "and just talk."

"Talk?" Ash said.

The director nodded.

Ash looked at the phone. "What do I say?"

"Anything you want."

"Can I curse out someone?"

The director made a face, and Misty yelled from the shadows of the studio, "Not in front of the kits!"

"Pikachu!" Pikachu added.

Ash just smirked. "Okay, when do I start?"

"When I say, 'Action!'" the director said as he ran off the set to his chair.

Ash nodded and flipped open the phone. "Does this have service?" he asked an aide.

The aide looked confused but nodded slowly.

"And…" The director lifted his hands. "Action!"

Ash flipped open the phone and dialed a ten-digit number, a devious grin on his face.

Misty jumped as her purse started vibrating. She pulled out her phone and looked quizzically at Ash. Ash just nodded and mouthed, "Pick up the phone." Misty sighed and answered. "Hello?"

"Hey, baby," Ash said. "Whatcha doin?"

"Oh, I'm just waiting for my loser husband to get off work. How about you?"

Ash looked around. "I'm in a white box of emotion trying to score some dough. How are the kits?"

The director made frantic motions at one of the aids who quickly ran off the set.

"They're doing fine, though I'm a little concerned about some of the words Ember's picking up."

"Really? Like what?"

"Oh, he's been trash talking his siblings and they don't understand him. He's been fighting a lot, too."

An aide ran up to Misty holding a small microphone. He motioned for Misty to keep talking.

"Really? Put him on, let me talk to him."

"Sure thing, hold on." Misty put her hand over the phone's microphone and called Ember. When he got there, she put the phone on the ground and motioned him too it. The aide looked to the director who pointed impatiently at the eevee.

Ember looked at the phone curiously. He'd seen Mom and Dad use one of these before… "Hello?" he said cautiously.

"Hey, Ember," Ash said.

Ember jumped back, startled. Dad was over there; how was he in the phone? What sort of magic was this? "Dad?" he asked.

"Yeah. Put your ear on the—hold on, just come over towards me real quick. And bring—no, don't bring the phone. Give it back to your mother and tell her to hang up."

"Cut!"

There was a mild scuffle on the set as the director picked up Ember and set him down in another part of the set. An aide handed Ember a phone identical to Ash's and placed a call to Ash's phone.

"Action!"

"Hello?" Ember said again, this time with a little more confidence.

"Hey, Ember. What's going on?"

"Um… I don't know."

"What's Pikachu up to?"

Ember looked off the set. "He's playing with Dewdrop and Dreamer. What's going on?"

"We're talking on the phone."

"Why do we need the phone?"

"Well, normally you use the phone to talk with people that aren't around. Like when I'm over at Professor Oak's lab and Mom's at home, I can call her on the phone and talk to her."

"But we're right next to each other."

"I know."

"So why do we need the phone?"

"Because this is a commercial."

The director was nodding his head furiously.

"What's a commercial?"

"It's where a big company pays famous people like me a lot of money to say that talking on phones is cool."

"You're famous?"

"Heck yes. Ooo— don't say that, your mother won't like it."

"Okay, Dad."

"So what's Pikachu doing now?"

"Running away from Dreamer."

"Cut!" The director yelled. "That was brilliant!"

"Not exactly the words I'd use," Misty muttered to herself.  
—  
They stayed at the studio well into the afternoon. The director wanted to get a few more shots of Ash and Ember, then Ash and Misty, Ash and Pikachu, and even Pikachu and Ember. After an eventful trip to the Saffron Burger (involving an angry pikachu and several missing ketchup packets), the Ketchums checked into the Pokmon Center.

"Why are we staying here?" Misty whispered.

"Quit whining," Ash whispered back. "**We** are not staying here. I want the kits to experience a Center at least once. I've got a room for the two of us at the Mind's Eye Hotel."

"Just the two of us?"

"Not even Pikachu."

"Pika?" Pikachu's ears perked up at the mention of his name.

Ash put on a "cheerful" smile. "That's right, buddy. You get to stay here, tonight."

"Pika!" Pikachu yelled back angrily. "Chaa, Pikapi, chu pika!"

Ash was taken aback. "What do you mean? You've stayed he—"

"Kaa pii-chupi, Pikapi!"

Ash inhaled sharply. He looked like he was about to yell something at the top of his lungs, but somehow he managed to will himself to keep his voice low. "Can we take this outside?"

Pikachu stormed out the door. Ash was about to follow when Misty called him.

"They're not captured," she said.

"What?"

"The kits; they can't stay here if they aren't captured."

"Then capture them," Ash said shortly.

"What?"

Ash threw up his hands. "I don't know, Misty. Think for youself," he yelled. Immediately he turned to her and said as calmly as he could, "I'm sorry I yelled, I'm just…"

"Having an argument with Pikachu?" she finished. "It's okay; I picked a bad time to ask."

Ash nodded sadly. "Just—I don't know, buy a value pack and do the two-second capture-and-release on them. I don't really… I don't know."

"It's okay," she said. "Do you want me to wait until you get back?"

"No, just go ahead and follow your motherly instinct or something," Ash said with a smile. "I gotta…"

"Don't say anything you'll regret," Misty said as she walked back to the counter.

Ash took a deep sigh and walked outside.

Pikachu was waiting around the side of the building. "So," Ash began, "what do you mean by, 'I'm not one of your kits'?"

"I mean exactly that!" Pikachu yelled back. "It's always, 'Pikachu, be nice.' 'Pikachu, don't run.' 'Pikachu, go to bed.' 'Pikachu, stay in the center.' You're treating me like one of your kits! I mean—who was the one keeping you alive and teaching you how to survive for six months? Who's the one that's been babysitting for you and being a freaking punching bag for the little runts? Who's the one that won the freaking league championship for you?"

Ash waited until Pikachu had clearly stopped before asking, "Is this about the ketchup?"

"Yes! And the bed. And the shoulder space. And the personal space. And—"

"Pikachu…"

"What?"

Ash sighed. "You knew this was going to happen," he said quietly, crouching down so he could talk more on Pikachu's level. "Granted, none of us expected the jolteon thing, none of us expected… five, six more intelligent objects around, but… I told you before I proposed that I'd have to spend more time with Misty. I—I'm _married_, Pikachu. She's my _mate_. I have to spend time with her. Heck, you were one of the people telling us to get married; well, this is what marriage is."

"Marriage is shutting out your best friends?" Pikachu asked sullenly.

"I'm sorry," Ash said. "This isn't the first time I've taken you for granted, and I'm sorry for that too. I guess… I never really thanked you for all the help you gave us back in the wilderness, so I'll say it now: Thank you. Thank you for making sure we didn't die or do anything stupid. And I'll do something special for you, I promise."

Pikachu looked down. "I'm sorry I yelled."

Ash smiled. "Hey, we all have to yell sometimes. Next time just tell me before you have to yell, kay?" He reached down to scratch Pikachu behind the ears. Pikachu leaned into it and closed his eyes contentedly.

"Maybe I'm just jealous of you and Pikachupi," he muttered.

"Maybe so," Ash answered. "Maybe you just need to evolve."

Pikachu's eyes shot open. "What? But you promised—"

Ash motioned for him to calm down. "I promised I wouldn't make you do it if you didn't want to. And I won't. But you may want to start considering it. After all…" He dropped his voice and nearly whispered, "we all have to grow up sometime."  
—  
"So how did the kids do?" Ash said to Misty as they enjoyed the sunset from the balcony of their hotel room.

"Eh, most of them were a little apprehensive at first, but it worked eventually. I had them boys registered in your name, by the way. The girls are in mine."

Ash nodded. "By the way," he said, "we need to call Brock sometime."

"Really? Why, just to catch up?"

Ash mentally kicked himself. "Oh, he hasn't heard from us since the wedding, has he?"

Misty smiled. "Relax, hotshot. I gave him a call not too long after we… you know, _returned_."

Ash breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Now where was I…?"

"Calling Brock?"

"Yeah, I think Pikachu needs a mate."

Misty frowned. "So you're just going to call Brock and—"

"No, no, nothing like that," Ash interrupted. "I was going to ask him for a little advice. You know I can't just stick him in a room with some pikachu he's never met and say, 'Here ya go buddy; have at it!' He'd hate me for that. No… I just want to find the best way to go about doing this. I'm sure Brock will understand."

Misty nodded. "Yeah, he actually thinks things through, unlike _some_ guys I know?"

Ash blinked. "Really? Like who?"

Misty playfully slapped Ash. "You know who."

Ash sighed, got up and stood behind Misty. "I know I'm included," he said, massaging her shoulders. "I want to know who else."

Misty just moaned.

"I want names, Misty."

Misty took a deep breath and said, "Eoooooooooooooooon….."

Ash closed his eyes and gave up and just concentrated on his hands. He wasn't a professional by any stretch of the imagination, but apparently it was good enough for Misty. Slowly he sank into a rhythm, not even thinking about what he was doing. Something felt slightly odd about the whole situation, but Ash just tried to relax. If he was tense, it would make Misty tense. And he had had enough tension for one day.

He took out a deep, slow breath through his nose and nearly fell over backwards. He could smell a lot, but the scent was heavy with Essence of Misty: the cheap hotel shampoo, the burgers they had devoured for dinner, the slightly damp fur from—  
Fur?

Ash's eyes shot open and he uttered an inhuman yelp in surprise. For starters, there was a yellow muzzle blocking a good chunk of his vision. Which led to the conclusion that he had morphed back into a jolteon. Which couldn't be true since he was standing on two legs, hadn't changed in height, and still had hands with opposable thumbs.

Ash glanced down at Misty. She was the same as him, except a vaporeon, obviously. Her tail went between the chair's back and seat, but Ash wondered what kind of shape her pants were in.

"Misty?" he asked gently.

"Why'd you stop?" Misty whined. Her voice hadn't changed. She started to stretch, paused, opened her eyes, and apparently went through the same shock Ash had just gone through.

Except she didn't yelp. She jumped up and screamed.

Ash clamped down on her muzzle. "Shhh, quiet," he chided. "Do you want to attract everyone's attention?"

She shook her head, the frightened look still in her eyes.

"I'm going to let go, Misty," Ash said gently. "Are you going to scream?" No. "Are you going to yell?" No. "Are you going to come inside so we can get a better picture of what's going on without being out in public?" Yes. "Okay, then." He gently lifted his hands off her muzzle.

"What happened to us?" she yelled.

With a little more force than he meant to, Ash forced her inside and closed the sliding door.

"Quiet!" he whispered loudly.

Misty was breathing quickly, and to all appearances seemed to be going into hysterics. "Ash, what's going on, I don't understand, we were there, and then we were—what's happening?"

Ash rushed over to her and put his arms around her. "I don't know what's going on," he said gently, "but we can't panic. What does _The Hitchhiker's Guide_ say on the front cover?"

"'Don't Panic'?"

"Right. So take a deep—" Wait, a deep breath would probably end in a scream. "Hold on." He grabbed a pillow and gave it to Misty. "Take a deep breath, and I want you to scream into this pillow, okay?" Misty nodded, took a deep breath, and tried to bury her muzzle into the pillow. Quickly Ash grabbed another pillow and held both of them for her.

The scream was still very audible, though probably not as loud as the first one.  
—  
The chancy walked through the dark room between the shelves of sleeping pokemon one last time before she turned in for the night. It had become part of her bedtime routine lately: shut down the rejuvenator, check on the little ones, turn off the light and go to bed.

She got to the last row and tried to fight off the sleep just a few more steps. Asleep, asleep, asleep, empty, aslee—  
The empty bunk stood out to her like a sore thumb. Slowly she tried to search her sleep-deprived mind for who was supposed to be there… It was one of those eevee kits, wasn't it? Where could he (or she, she reminded herself) have gotten off to.

Then she noticed the murmuring coming from the window on the other side of the bunks. Quickly she finished checking the row and discovered yet another empty bunk belonging to an eevee. She sighed, but was slightly thankful that the two out of bed weren't fully evolved; otherwise, she would have a problem she would **not** want to deal with.

She found the two sitting on the windowsill, talking softly to each other. Walking closer, she allowed herself to eavesdrop for just a little while.

"I lived in the wild for about a season," the boy eevee said. "Then my parents went back to their trainers and took us with them." He chuckled. "This is actually my first time in a pokemon center."

"Must be nice," the girl said. "I was barely old enough to remember my mom before her trainer gave me to Brian."

The two eevees continued to stare out the window. Finally, the girl ventured another question. "Do you… do you hear anything?"

"Not here," he said softly. "There's too many lights, too much noise. But out in the wild, I could hear the stars as clear as—well, like I can hear you now."

"What do they say to you?"

The boy remained silent for a moment before answering. "That time is running short. Events have been set into motion that will bring darkness… but there will always be light to guide the way." He turned to the girl. "What about you?"

The girl chuckled. "I hear them sing. It's… beautiful, really." She closed her eyes and repeated,

"'Great are the birds that soar up high,  
Great are the stars that fill the sky,  
Great are the beings that walk the ground,  
Their Creator is greater than all that is around…'"

She giggled again. "I'm really an awful translator," she said with a blush.

The boy didn't laugh. "I liked it," he said simply.

The chancy sighed audibly. Young love, she thought to herself. She hated to break up such a nice conversation, but she had a job to do.

"Children," she said softly, trying not to startle them (which she did anyway), "it's time for bed."

The two eevees slowly hopped down and made their way back to their bunks. The chancy followed them and helped them in, making sure that they went where they were supposed to and stayed there. Satisfied, she walked out of the room toward where she slept.

"'Night, Trill."

"'Night Sparky."  
—  
A sharp rap on the window startled Ash and Misty. A man… or something, was standing on their balcony wearing what appeared to be a monk's outfit, except the hood was pulled over his head so far that his face was completely hidden.

"That's…" Ash muttered, "that's the guy who gave us the stones…" Nervously, he walked over to the door and opened it.

"I see you've been adapting to your situation," the stranger muttered. His voice was gruff, like he had been yelling for the past few years and was still hoarse. "Of course, you can't expect to know everything on your own, now can you?"

"Is this another 'Ash is dense' joke?" Ash said testily.

"It could be," the stranger said. "But why should I insult you? You see…"

He let his hood down, revealing a fox-like head with pure white fur, oversized ears, and piercing green eyes. At the same time he brushed aside part of his cloak, letting several tails poke out.

"We are not all that different."

"You're a ninetails?" Ash asked.

The ninetails morph laughed. "Wonderful perception of the obvious, boy! They'd never tell you were your mother's son. As for you, Miss, might I say that you look positively—"

"What do you want," Ash said forcefully. Misty stood behind him, glaring at the newcomer.

He dismissed the show of force with a wave of his paw-like hand. "Nothing you need to yell at me about," he said. "I simply came to tell you how to activate the stones."

"So tell us."

The ninetails sighed. "Impatience… definitely _not_ from your mother. As for the stones, all you really need to know is that it is tied to your memories. If you immerse yourself in the memories of a particular form, if you _become_ who you were then, then you will assume that form now. Any questions?"

Ash was about to tell him to get lost when Misty said, "Why?"

He cocked his head. "Pardon, Miss?"

"It's Mrs. Ketchum to you!" Misty yelled. "I asked you why you did this to us! So?"

The stranger was taken aback. "Are you saying you didn't like it?" Misty flinched, and he pounced. "Are you saying you wish it didn't happen? Are you saying you don't want those kits of yours?" By now his voice was at a yell. "I gave you a chance to experience what few humans have ever experienced. Are you saying that it would have been better if they had never been born?"

Misty sat down hard on one of the beds, but Ash stepped in. "She didn't say that. We've still got the kits, right? We're still taking care of them, right? They've still got **both** their parents, right?"

The realization of Ash's words hit himself, and for a second he couldn't figure out what to say. However, he was able to notice a strange emotion on the ninetails… Ash wasn't positive, but he was sure he could smell panic on the stranger.

"It doesn't matter if we want them or not, anyway," he said, this time at a normal volume. "We're going to take care of them. Sure we didn't expect it, but sometimes you just have to take life as it comes. But that's beside the point anyway… because we do love them." Realizing he had nothing left to say, Ash straightened his posture and said, "I think it's time for you to go."

The stranger walked briskly to the balcony. Without a word he opened the door, walked out, and jumped over the railing.

Quietly, Ash closed the door and the curtains. Calmly, almost too calmly, he walked over to the bed and sat next to Misty.

"Should we give it a shot?" he asked without looking at her.

Without a word, a faint white glow surrounded the two as they slowly began to morph back into their human selves.

Misty opened her eyes first. Giggling, she glanced back at Ash's pants and the hole that was torn in them when his tail poked through. "Guess we'll have to fix our pants, Ash."

He didn't answer.

"Ash?" She leaned forward to get a better look at his face and the tears that were starting to well up in his eyes.

She edged closer to him. "What's wrong?"

"What was your memory?" he whispered, his voice starting to crack.

"Our wedding."

Ash smiled grimly. "Sorry, then… mine was me and my mom."

"That's sweet of you."

"Alone."

"Oh."

They sat in silence for a few more moments before Ash continued.

"I mean… I never even knew him. Maybe there's a few faint memories floating around in my thick head somewhere, I don't know. But… everyone said he was dead, but mom always said he was alive… that he'd come home someday… but he never di—"

His voice finally cracked, and Misty just sat there, holding him while he cried.

"It's not your fault, Ash," she said after he had calmed down a little. "Sometimes people just do that. It's not your mom's fault; it's not your fault; it's his…"

Ash took a deep breath and tried to recover himself. "I know," he said. "I just…"

"Need to be reminded sometimes," Misty finished.

Ash sat up and looked Misty straight in the eyes. "Misty, promise me something."

"What?"

"If I ever run out on you, chase me. Don't let me get away and leave you like my dad left Mom, okay?"

Misty smiled. "I don't think I have to worry about that, Ash."

"I don't think so either, but just promise, okay?"

Misty let herself fall onto the bed. "Okay, I promise. It won't be easy, though."

"What do you mean?"

"You've got the type advantage."

Ash groaned. "I'll show you a type advantage," he growled as he started tickling her mercilessly.


	5. Finality

I wanted to drag this out a little longer, but, truth be told people, I'm tired of this story. So here's the ending because while I can't stand badly written stories, I hate incomplete ones even more.  
—  
The sun was beginning to dip below the treeline when Pikachu found Ash. He was lying down, his muzzle resting on his paws, tail swaying back and forth gently, and his eyes completely vacant.

"You okay, Pikapi?" Pikachu said.

Ash snapped out of his dazed stare. "Huh, what?"

Pikachu smirked. "You spaced out again."

Ash sighed and raised himself into a sitting position, his tail still swaying. "Yeah… It's just—"

"Pikachupi," Pikachu finished.

Ash nodded. "I can't seem to get her out of my head right now. It's like—I see her, the way she moves, her… the way she smells, the way she talks to me, I just…" He smiled (as well as a jolteon can). "I'm so glad she's mine."

"Just be careful," Pikachu warned.

Ash cocked an ear. "How so?"

"She's worth protecting, right?" Pikachu said. Ash nodded. "Out here, chances are you'll have to."

- - -

"Your pokémon were very well behaved," the nurse said to Ash as he picked up the kits the next morning.

"Chan chancy see," muttered the chancy behind the desk.

"What's that?" said Ash. He looked over the kits one more time. Ember, Dreamer, Dewdrop, Sunshine, and… as usual, Sparky was half asleep or sleepwalking.

Ash pointed at Sparky. "Did he stay up late?"

The chancy nodded and added, "See chan chan chancy."

"What?" Ash ran over to the chancy and muttered quietly, switching to jolteon language, "What do you mean 'he was talking with a girl'?"

The chancy was startled by Ash's sudden change in language, but she managed to stammer out, "H-he was talking with another one of the eevees. They were just stargazing, nothing more." She paused and seemed to look at Ash a little harder. "How are you…?"

"Talking like this?" Ash reached in his shirt and showed the chancy his necklace, the yellow stone on it still glowing slightly.

The chancy gasped. "You—you have a Stone of Destiny?"

"You know about these?" Ash asked, careful not to let his voice get too loud.

"Only a little," the chancy said, "but… you need to talk to the Dragon Master. He can tell you more."

"And where can I find this 'Dragon Master'?"

"He—I don't know. He's a human…"

Ash groaned. "A human with a really big ego. I think I know who you're talking about. He—"

Ash was interrupted by an angry yell from the other end of the center.

"You're not my mom! My mom's not a human!"

In the split second it took Ash to realize it was Dewdrop yelling, she scampered out the door that just happened to be open at that moment by another trainer coming into the center.

As quick as he could Ash bolted out the door. Quickly he scanned the streets, looking for any sign of a brown blur. He caught sight of Dewdrop just as she rounded the corner of a building at the end of the block. With only half of his mind paying attention to useless details like traffic, he managed to make it to the alley.

Dewdrop was still there, but she was hiding among several lush, white tails connected to a green-eyed ninetails.

"Don't come any closer, boy," the ninetails growled in plain english.

Ash stood his ground. "What do you want with her?"

"You don't deserve her. You've turned your back on who you truly are. I'm going to teach her the ways of the world you don't understand."

"What don't I understand?"

"Don't you see?" the ninetails yelled. "You aren't human, but yet you still insist on pretending. Why? So you can keep your precious status as a trainer? It's obvious that you don't care about her; all you care about is YOURSELF!" With the last word, a sudden burst of flame engulfed the ninetails and the eevee, and when it cleared, they were gone.

- - -

"Get away from her!" Ash yelled, his fur spikes standing on end as he charged up an attack.

The flareon laughed arrogantly. "And just how do you plan to stop me? Shock me? Please, I'm too strong for that."

Ash weighed his options. Pikachu was off who knows where, and his pokémon belt was back at the "camp," so the only thing standing between this upstart flareon and Misty was him.

Failure was not an option.

Ash lunged, hoping to catch the flareon off guard. He managed to lightly shock him but ended up on the receiving end of a flamethrower attack in the process.

"All too easy," said the flareon as he turned towards the vaporeon at the other end of the clearing.

"Don't turn your back on me!" Ash yelled as he tackled the flareon full force and the two were thrown to the ground. The next minute consisted of a mixture of elemental and physical attacks in the most brutal combinations possible. As one combatant would bite the other's neck, the other would counter with an elemental attack to the mouth. But finally the flareon was able to sink his teeth deep into Ash's flank and throw him across the clearing, landing a foot away from Misty.

Misty looked down at Ash, the panic evident in her eyes.

- - -

"How could you just let her go like that?" Misty yelled.

"Do you think I wanted to?" Ash countered.

"Well what are you going to do about it?"  
Ash took a deep breath. "I need to make some phone calls," he said as calmly as he could. "First—"

"Phone calls? What good is—"

"I'm getting to it!" Ash yelled. "I think I'm starting to get to the bottom of this whole thing. I just need to get a little more information. We also need to get you and the kits to a safe place."

Misty made a conscious effort to calm herself down. "I suppose… I suppose we could go ahead and go to my parents' place. We—we were going to do that anyway. You can make some calls from there, and…" She looked Ash in the eye. "But whatever happens I'm coming with you."

"No, Misty, I can't—"

"That's right, you can't do this without me."

"That's not it!"

"Then what is it?"

"I—" Ash looked down at Pikachu. Pikachu looked up at Ash, glanced at Misty, and gave a resounding "Pika!" to Ash.

Ash sighed. "That's settled, then. We'll head to the Waterflowers', Pikachu'll look after the kits there while Misty and I go look for Dewdrop. That work?"

Misty answered with a kiss. And a very nice one at that…

Pikachu let out a tired, "Cha, cha, pi pika," and started to round up the kits.

- - -

And as always, the best laid plans of chu's and men will quickly come to ruin. In this case, the curveball was Misty's parents. While Misty and her mother were in the kitchen getting lunch ready, Boaz Waterflower pulled Ash aside.

"So, what's this about your 'daughter' running away?" he asked.

Ash sighed. "It's kinda complicated. There's… a lot going on on several different levels."

Boaz nodded. "Wouldn't it be better just to accept that she's gone?"

Ash's jaw dropped. "What?"

"Ash, pokémon run away from their trainers all the time. It's quite possible that this eevee just wasn't meant to be trained. It has no effect on your status as—"

"She's not just my pokémon, sir," Ash interrupted.

Boaz sighed and put down his drink. "So you still think that they're your children?"

Ash's incredulous stare continued. "I _know_ they're my children."

"Ash, Ash," Boaz said condescendingly, "I'm not saying you don't have a special connection with these eevees. In fact, I think it's a wonderful thing. But you can't let that desire cloud your judgement. The fact of the matter is, it's simply impossible for these eevees to be your biological children, which is the impression I'm getting from you. It's a simple psychological disorder, which would explain the story that you and Misty told us when you came back. I'm not asking to know the truth, I'm just asking that you let go of this…"

Boaz trailed off when he noticed that Ash was no longer sitting in front of him. In fact, where Ash had been sitting, there was now a very perturbed jolteon sitting among a pile of clothes. In fact, they were the same clothes that Ash was wearing just a few moments ago…

- - -

"You want me to leave him?" Misty nearly yelled.

"Well, Misty," Ruth Waterflower said, "it's just that—well, your father and I are concerned for you. This story about the kits and everything… we're concerned about you're…"

"Mental health?" Misty finished.

"No," Ruth said unconvincingly. "We think that he's… well, abusive situations always come when the husband has to resort to unconventional methods to—"

"You think Ash is going to beat me? Is that it?"

"Well… yes."

Misty looked down at the half-finished ham sandwich. "And you don't believe us about the kits."

"Well… that's putting it rather bluntly, but—"

"Just answer the question, Mom," Misty whispered.

Ruth opened her mouth, but before she could speak Boaz burst into the room. His face was pale and he was breathing heavily. He looked at Ruth first, then he pointed at Misty.

"You…" he said, "you're not going back with Ketchum. I don't know what he's gotten into, but you are going to stay as far away from it as you possibly can. He's going to leave and take those hellspawn with him and you are going to stay right here, do you hear me?"

Misty didn't bother to turn around. "He showed you, didn't he?"

"He showed me enough! He showed me how he planted those ideas in your head. He did, didn't he? He's trying to control you, Misty! He's—Look at me when I'm talking to you, young lady!"

Misty turned around furiously, her eyes brimming with tears and her fists clenched tightly. "You want me to listen to you? DO YOU WANT ME TO LISTEN TO YOU?" she yelled. "My whole life… when I told you about Lily and Daisy and Violet teasing me, you never listened. When I told you about all the adventures I was having, you never listened. When I told you how I hated being cooped up in the gym, you never listened. And… And Ash did. How can you tell me to leave the one man in the world who actually knows who I am?"

"It's not real, Misty, it's—"

"What if it is? What if I can do the same thing he can, huh? What then? Are you going to throw me out? Or are you going to try to force me to change? Well, guess what, 'dad,' I'm not your little girl anymore!"

"Don't talk that way to me—"

"Fine!" Misty took her purse from the counter and walked toward the door.

Boaz turned, his face by now bright red. "Misty, if you walk out that door—"

"I don't plan on coming back," Misty yelled without looking back.

- - -

"I'm sorry, Misty," Ash said once they were outside. "I—he just—"

"Don't worry about it," Misty said quickly.

Ash put his arm around her back. "But I am sorry."

Misty distracted herself with a head count. "One, two, three, four… Where's Pikachu?"

"What?" Ash looked around what passed for a Cerulean City suburb. "Where could he have—"

At that moment a shiny red convertible pulled up next to Ash and Misty, a familiar face in the driver's seat and a grinning pikachu riding shotgun.

"Lily?" Misty said.

Lily took off her sunglasses and looked seriously at the couple. "I'm going to assume that you're standing out here because you're not allowed in?"

Misty inhaled sharply. "I… basically just disowned Dad."

Lily unlocked the doors. "Good. That old man's had it coming for a long time now. Get in; you're staying at the gym tonight."

As Ash and Misty went through the long process of getting everyone into the car, Ash asked, "So how did you know we were here?"

Lily grinned. "Your pikachu is very good at pantomiming, you know."

- - -

Truth be told, the gym was a much better place for the kits. Other pokémon to play with, more space, fewer breakable objects, and three aunts that were absolutely beside themselves with their nieces and nephews.

"Oh, you're so _adorable_!" Daisy said as she rubbed Ember's fur for the thousandth time.

"I don't exactly appreciate this," Ember grumbled. This, of course, caused Daisy to fawn over him even more because of his new talent.

Meanwhile, Ash and Misty related the day's events to Lily, occasionally filling in a few details from their "extended honeymoon."

"So, I guess that answers my next question," Lily said, fishing through a backpack at her feet. She pulled out a supermarket tabloid and laid it on the table. "This photo's not a fake, is it?"

"What the crap?" Ash yelled, seizing the paper. Misty did her best to look over his shoulder.

The photo in question was extremely blurry, probably taken from a cell-phone camera, but there they were, two humanoid pokémon on the porch of a hotel room, one massaging the other.

"That's us, alright," Misty said.

"Great," Ash said, panic starting to creep in. "Now everyone's going to find out. What's going to—"

"Nothing," Lily said, taking the tabloid back. "The only people that will take this seriously are the conspiracy theorists, and you know how crackpot they can be. In other words, there's nothing to worry about."

"You sure?" Ash said.

"Positive. Right now, it sounds like you and Misty have bigger fish to fry. So while you go make your phone calls, we've got to catch up with our sister, okay?"

Ash turned a corner of his mouth up. "And what if I don't want to let her out of my sight?"

Lily grinned. Putting two fingers to her mouth, she whistled sharply. "Support group!" she yelled. Within ten seconds all four Sensational Sisters were beyond reach of any intruding males: the ladies' bathroom.

Ash just smiled. "Wow…"

- - -

"Let's see," Ash thought, "what do I find out first. Fox-man, rocks, fox-man, rocks… Rocks." He punched in the number, thankful that being league champion had its privileges.

A standard pretty face picked up the phone. "Lance Gardner's office, may I help—oh! Mr. Ketchum!"

"That's right," Ash said. "Is Lance busy?"

"Actually," she said, "he's been expecting your call. I'll patch you through." Before Ash could properly thank her she transferred him.

"Ah, Ash Ketchum, I presume?" Lance said in his usual bravado when he saw Ash's face.

"Correct as usual, your majesty," Ash answered comically. "I was wondering if you could help me with this." He held his necklace up to the camera.

Lance nodded. "I thought so. I'm assuming you've seen the tabloids?"

"I've seen one, yes."

Lance smiled. "I can't say I'm surprised really."

"What, that we made the tabloids?"

"No… no, not that. I just… I knew as soon as I saw you that you would get one of these."

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Lance nodded. "Is it safe to assume that those kits you and Misty are always with are…?"

"They are."

"Alright then. Let's see… Do you know what these are called?"

"The chancy said they were called 'Destiny Stones' or something like that."

Lance nodded. "That's as good a translation as can be expected. These stones actually come from a cavern near Silence Bridge. They—"

"Silence Bridge?"

"You know, the route between Lavender Town and Fuchsia City?"

"Yeah…" Ash appeared lost in thought for a few moments. "I'm sorry, you were saying?"

"Right. The cavern is guarded by the mews. In their language, their word for 'destiny' is the word they use to describe a person. Someone's essence, their core personality, _who they are_, if you will, to them that's the same thing as destiny. It's actually an interesting worldview, if you think about it. But enough about that. Let's see…

"The stones are… They allow whoever has one to shift back and forth between a human and pokémon form, or anything in between, as you obviously discovered last night. Notice I didn't say 'human to pokémon.' The truth is, anyone can get one of these stones. Not everyone does; in fact, few ever do. But it's not limited to humans. A pokémon has just as much chance of getting a stone as a human does.

"An important thing to remember is that the stone's powers only take effect while you're wearing it. I'm assuming that when you and Misty disappeared for six months, your stones were buried somewhere? When you're not wearing the stone, you are fully whatever form you are at the time. If you're a pokémon, then no one would be able to tell you were once human apart from your behavior. And if you remain in that form for too long, you might even forget you were human."

Ash gulped. How close had he and Misty come to… He pushed the thought from his mind; it wasn't worth worrying about now. "But while we're wearing it…"

"Right. While you're wearing it, you can shift back and forth at will, you can speak like a human or a pokémon and understand both sides as well. With some practice, you may even be able to pull off an attack while human, though I wouldn't recommend it. The human body isn't made for dishing out attacks, and you'll probably injure yourself."

"Um," Ash interjected, "can we be caught?"

Lance inhaled sharply. "Yes, and I'm glad you brought that up. Yes, you can be caught **if** you're wearing your stone or you're in pokémon form. Oh, and when you come out of the pokéball, you'll be naked, so try and make sure it doesn't happen," Lance added with a smirk. "The good news is that the pokéball has to touch you, not just your clothes. My best advice is to find a good master."

Ash nodded. "I think I know what we can do about that."

Lance smiled. "Good. Let's see… actually, that's all I can think of right now. Any questions?"

Ash took a deep breath. "Do you know anything about a ninetails—uh, hybrid?"

Lance bit his lip. "I've never actually met him," he said in a low voice, "but I've heard stories. Apparently he's been going around acting like a messenger or something, but… How—have you met him?"

"Kind of," Ash sighed. He proceeded to relate all the times he and Misty had encountered the ninetails.

Lance pondered the information for a moment. "You know he's lying, right?"

"What?"

"What he said about you not deserving your daughter? He's lying. He—well, let me put it this way: he's insane."

"That's kinda—"

"Strong? No, Ash, it's perfectly legit. He's getting his own ideas and imagination mixed up with reality. It's the definition of insanity. Ash, he thinks he knows who he is, but from what you told me, he doesn't. Who you are doesn't depend on what shape your body is; it depends on the content of your character. You may be human, but I can tell you still love your children, and besides, you still haven't started training for the league championships, right?" Ash smirked and lowered his head. "Seriously," Lance continued, "you may not know what you are sometimes, but you of all people, Ash Ketchum, should know who you are. And that's something time and circumstances can't change." Lance suddenly turned toward the side. "Ash," he said, "I've got to go, but remember what I said, okay?"

"I will."

"And call me if you have any more questions. Bye!" And he hung up.

Ash sighed. "Now for the hard part," he whispered as he dialed the next number.

"Hello—Ash!" Ash's mother said as her face appeared on the video screen. "How are you?"

"Could be better," Ash said dryly. "Mom, I—I'm sorry, but…"

Delilah sobered up. "What is it, honey?"

"What happened to dad?"

Delilah's face paled, and for a moment she seemed to lock up. "I was wondering when you'd ask," she said softly, her usual cheerfulness gone. "He… he disappeared when you were just two. We'd.. we'd been married for about three years. He would leave for months at a time, but he'd always come back. I—I even knew about it before we got married, but I guess… I guess I thought I could get him to stay… he even said he'd stay…

"And then one day… he came back… and he told me he couldn't stay. He had more important things to do, and he knew I could raise you on my own, and…"

"That's okay," Ash said finally, "you don't have to keep going. Just…" He paused for a second. "What would you do if he came back?"

"I'd… I'm not sure what I'd do," Delilah confessed. "I'd probably ask him if… if he still loved me. And… why…"

Ash nodded. "Thanks. That's all I need to hear."

- - -

Ash and Misty had only their traveling clothes and one belt of empty pokéballs between them. Ash had suggested bringing some other pokémon along, but Misty had pointed out that they might have a difficult time coaching them in a battle if they were participants themselves. Lily, Daisy, Violet, Pikachu, and the kits had wished them well, and now they were standing in front of the Cerulean pokémon center with one question:

"So where do we start?" Misty asked.

Ash's face fell. "Crap!" he yelled. "I knew I was forgetting something!"

At that moment Ash's cell phone rang. "Hello?" Ash answered.

"Vee eevee?"

"Sparky?"

"Vee!"

"What—" He glanced at Misty, and the two ducked into the shadows of a nearby building. "What is it?" Ash asked in jolteon.

"I think I know where Dewdrop is!" Sparky answered.

"How—I mean, where?"

"Well, Trillian said that her trainer tried to catch a ninetails on the north end of town, but he ran off. She said it was carrying an eevee with it; I think that's Dewdrop."

"That's great Spa—wait, who's Trillian?"

Ash could have sworn he heard his son blush. "Um, she's an eevee that belongs to this trainer that just came in the gym."

"She wouldn't happen to be the same eevee that you were talking with last night, would it?"

"Uh… yeah."

Ash sighed. "I'm glad you're making friends, son. Don't forget to give the phone back to aunt Lily."

"I won't. Be careful, dad!"

"I will." He hung up and turned to Misty. "He's north; I think it's on the way to Bill's place."

Misty looked up. "We better hurry if we're going to find them before nightfall."

- - -

The ninetails threw Dewdrop onto the ground as the sun set. "Get some rest," he said gruffly.

"I'm hungry," Dewdrop whimpered.

The ninetails struck her with his paw again. "You'll eat in the morning."

Dewdrop did her best to keep from whimpering and rested her head on her paws. "I want my daddy."

"Your daddy's dead," the ninetails answered reflexively.

Instantly a yellow blur collided with the ninetails, sending him sprawling five feet away.

"Dad!" Dewdrop yelled, running to the jolteon standing in the ninetails' place.

Ash looked at her carefully, She was heavily bruised and scratched up, and even burned in a few places. "What did he do to you?" he said.

"It's called 'discipline,' boy, and it's something you're going to have to learn if you're going to be a good parent," the ninetails said, approaching slowly, apparently unfazed by the tackle.

"Dewdrop," Ash whispered, "do you see your mother?"

Dewdrop looked past Ash and saw Misty several feet back. "Yes."

"Go to her and stay with her; do you hear me?" She nodded quickly. "Go."

Dewdrop scampered back to her mother while Ash turned his attention to the ninetails. "What do you know about being a good parent? Last I heard you couldn't get past the terrible twos."

"Sometimes there are more important things than—"

"Than keeping your promises?" Ash began circling the ninetails. "Do the words 'til death do us part' mean anything to you?"

"She's dead to me!" the ninetails yelled, fiery energy beginning to form around him.

"Really?" Ash yelled back. "Last time I checked she was still alive!" He glanced back at Misty and Dewdrop and continued. "But to be honest, I'm glad I never had you as a father, not after what you did to MY daughter!"

"You don't deserve her," the ninetails reiterated.

"I never said I did. She's a gift. Like all children." He moved closer. "But you never did learn to appreciate that, did you?"

"I was watching," the ninetails said, much more quietly. "I was watching when the great Ho-Oh revealed herself to you. I was watching when you rode on the back of Lugia. I was watching as you stood up for Mewtwo against Team Rocket. I was—"

"But that's all you ever do, isn't it?" Ash said. "I could never talk to you, see you… love you…"

"Come with me," the ninetails said quickly. "Come with me, and I'll show you how the world was meant to be. I'll show you what life truly is, unshackled by society and—"

"Marriage vows?" Ash yelled. "No, I can't leave her. Not like you left Mom."

The ninetails growled. "You're just weak. And I'll prove it." With that, he released a flamethrower attack straight at Ash who managed to dodge the full blast but still singed his tail.

And the battle was on.

Ash charged up for an electrical attack. He did his best not to surround himself with a charge since the ninetails could easily hit him with another flamethrower without coming close enough for the "shield" to take effect. He charged, electricity arcing and cracking around him.

The ninetails watched, and at the last moment, he ducked aside and fired another flamethrower at Ash. Or at least, that was what he thought. Ash had stopped short, waited for him to make his move, then attacked the ninetails off guard, biting and shocking him at the same time.

The ninetails howled in pain and covered his body in flames. Ash yelped and pulled himself off, and the ninetails slammed into him, throwing him back seven feet and knocking the wind out completely out of him.

Ash looked at Misty as he tried to get his breath back. They made eye contact, and she nodded slowly.

- - -

Misty looked down at Ash, then at the upstart flareon that was trying, in some way, to woo her. She wanted—no, she _needed_ Ash to win this fight; the consequences otherwise were not something she wanted to think about. Ash knew this too, but for all his best efforts, he was losing.

"Misty," he whispered, "I need you to hit him."

"Ash, I—"

"Just hit him once. Water conducts electricity, right?"

Misty looked at the flareon, who was starting to make his way towards her. Ash pulled himself up and slunk off to the side, the whole time keeping one eye on the situation.  
Misty looked, and for a moment she nearly gave in. That moment didn't last long, though.

"Wha'd'ya say, baby, we go find someplace else?"

Misty smirked. "Don't you have a trainer to get back to?"

The flareon was taken aback. "What? No—no I don't."

"Riiiiight," Misty said as she wrapped her tail around herself and concentrated on the ground just beneath the punk's feet…

- - -

Ash stood up as soon as he was able to and bolted towards where Misty was waiting. If he had any advantage in this fight, it was his speed. It was the one thing he enjoyed most about his alternate form and one thing he had trained with Pikachu on every day.

He saw Misty out the corner of his eye and skidded to a stop, letting the ninetails run into him at full speed. Again, Ash went sprawling, and this time, he didn't try to get up.

The ninetails approached Ash slowly. "Weak," he spat. "Just like your mother."

"She's stronger than you'll ever be," Ash said as strongly as he could which, truth be told, wasn't very.

"I offered to take her to the cave," he said, "but she wouldn't go. Some drivel about not running away…"

"She's right."

The ninetails scoffed. "And what do you know?"

"I know there's something to be said to standing by your woman." Ash said with a smile.

The ninetails' eyes widened and he turned around to see Misty concentrating, her tail wrapped around herself and her body surrounded by a faint blue glow…

- - -

The ground beneath the flareon erupted with a stream of water that completely engulfed the flareon.

"Arrogant punk," Misty sneered as he hit the ground, winded and soaking wet.

Ash walked up to the flareon as he attempted to pull himself up. "I told you to stay away from her," he said, just before he hit the flareon with a massive thunder attack. When all was said and done, the flareon was on the ground, large chunks of hair singed off and the rest matted flat on his body. All in all, not a pretty sight.

"Is he still alive?" Misty asked.

Ash sniffed him. "Yeah, though he'll have one heck of a headache when he wakes up.

- - -

The ninetails was still moving slowly even after Ash's thunder attack. "You think…" he wheezed, "that you can beat me that easily?"

"Who said we were trying to beat you?" Ash said. He had shifted to his half-pokémon form and was holding an Ultra Ball, charged and ready to go.

"No…" the ninetails whispered as the ball struck him full in the flank. The light turned green without so much as a jostle from its new captive.

"So that's it…" Ash breathed as he managed to shift himself back to jolteon before he collapsed in exhaustion.

- - -

Lily strolled up to the pokémon center desk late the next morning. "I dropped four pokémon off late last night?" she asked.

The nurse smiled like she always did. "They're right here," she said, handing Lily the four pokéballs. Three were the standard red-and-white variety, while one was an extremely high-end blue and silver model.

"Thanks!" Lily smiled as she walked out the door.

Once she was back at the gym she released the three pokémon from the red-and-white balls: an eevee, a vaporeon, and a still-exhausted jolteon.

"Rough night?" she asked with a smirk.

The jolteon growled passively while the eevee ran off to find her siblings. The vaporeon seemed to chide the jolteon while it looked quizzically at Lily.

"How did I know where you guys were?" They nodded. "Let's just say its a good thing you have a translator in the family that doesn't need these toys," she said, giving Ash and Misty back their necklaces.

Ash put his on first and asked (in english), "So how did the pokémon center let us in?"

"I captured you," Misty said with a slight air of smugness. "Then I got in one of your pokéballs." She turned to Lily. "Is the other one…"

Lily pulled out the Ultra Ball. "It's right here. Is this…"

"The kidnapper." Ash said flatly. "Can you do me a favor and send it to my mom? She'll know what to do with him."

Lily raised her eyebrow but didn't say anything about it. "Oh, and Lance called last night."

"What did he want?" Misty said.

Lily shrugged. "He'll talk to you before he finalizing anything, Ash, but he said that, given your new domestic situation, he'd be willing to relieve you of your league champion responsibilities if you'll take up the post at Viridian Gym."

Ash's eyes grew wide. "Me? Viridian Gym leader?"

Lily nodded.

Ash was stunned speechless.

"That's great, Ash!" Misty squealed, pressing against him and licking his muzzle affectionately.

Ash barely acknowledged Misty's—or anyone's—presence. "I'm the Viridian Gym leader?"

"Yes, Einstein," Misty chided, "now let's go get some breakfast."

"Breakfast?" Ash said cheerfully, "I don't want breakfast! Where's Pikachu; I wanna battle! 'Cause I'm the fricking gym leader! Woooooooooooooo!" Ash yelled as he ran into the pool room.

Lilly suppressed a giggle. "He certainly is a character."

Misty sighed. "Only because his heart's so big. And I wasn't kidding about that food, either; I'm hungry!"

- - -

End. If anyone wants to write a sequel, send me a message.


End file.
